Norway ---The Director General of the Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside has called on foreign inventors to tap into Africa's maritime industry for mutually beneficial relationship, even as he stated that Africa is ready to engage on equal terms with the rest of the world
in the area of maritime business.
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Executive Director,
Operations, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Engr.
Rotimi Fashakin, Director, Maritime Services, Federal Ministry of
Transportation, Mr. Dauda Danjuma, Director General, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, Head, Protocol NIMASA, Kehinde
Bolaji, Chairman, House Committee, Maritime Safety, Education and
Administration, Honourable Mohammed Umaru Bago, Managing Director, National
Inland Waterways (NIWA), Mr. Boss Mustapha and the Assistant Director,
Protocol, NIMASA Mr. Buba Umar at the Nor-Shipping 2017 in Lillstrome, Norway.
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Dakuku who made this known at the
Nor-Shipping 2017 event holding at Lillstrome, Norway, further stated that it is high time Africa stopped others from engaging
us on their own terms, whether they bring vessels to us or just taking our
cargoes.
In his words, “What
we are trying to do is to change the terms of engagement for the rest of the
world in terms of maritime business. We want to operate on equal terms not
lopsided terms against our own interest, thereby creating room for a mutually
beneficial relationship,” he noted.
Dr.
Dakuku further stated that Nigeria’s participation at Nor-Shipping is to say to
the world that we have a lot to offer. “There
are lots of opportunities in the maritime administration of Nigeria; we are
diversifying our economy, we are the biggest economy in Africa with a vast
population, vast coastline of over 800 kilometers, endowed with many natural
resources and a good Gross Domestic Product (GDP) amongst others. So if you
have to do business in Africa, you must talk about Nigeria”, he said.
Dakuku who was elected the Chairman of the Association of
African Maritime Administrations recently, stated that part of the initiative to grow the
African maritime industry is to rapidly build capacity amongst nations within
the continent.
“If
you look at the number of seafarers we have globally, it appears things are
lopsided against Africa and the challenge appears to be sea time training, so
we are talking about sea time and building capacity,” he
said.
He also noted that there are no
African fleets; hence the need for nations to develop their own fleets has
become inevitable while the terms of trade is being looked into.
In his words, “what
is going on is that many other countries of the world just come to Africa to
take our cargoes and off they go; please, how can we all operate on the same
footage? Africa has something to give hence, they are coming to us, therefore
they must engage us on equally beneficial terms”.
He equally added that the African
continent is working together to see how to benefit from one another’s
experiences, which will help in the running of the affairs of their maritime
administrations.
Other areas are, enhancing the
continent’s fleets, human capacity development, peer review in terms of
maritime administration, ports state control, coastal control and
infrastructural growth, all geared towards a virile maritime administration in
Africa.
Nor-Shipping is a bi-annual event
that brings together Stakeholders in the maritime sector from various
continents aimed at improving the global maritime sector. The event also
features exhibitions amongst others. The main theme for this year’s event is
“Catalyst for Change”.
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