The Nigerian Ports Consultative Council has inaugurated a steering committee which will propose a road map for the maritime sector and port industry for the next four years.The Chairman of the NPCC, Chief Kunle Folarin, who inaugurated the committee on Tuesday, said its members had been drawn from the various segments in the port industry.
They include the Chairman, Shipping Association of Nigeria, Mr. Val Usifo; a former Sole Administrator, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Mr. Olu Akinsoji; a former Managing Director of Eastern Ports, Mr. Felix Ovbude; a former Commissioner for Transportation, Lagos State, Prof. Bamidele Badejo; and the Managing Director, Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited, Captain Mohammed Bashir.
Others are the Chief Executive Officer, Ships & Ports Communication, Bolaji Akinola; the President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Olayiwola Shittu; the President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Eugene Nweke and a former Acting Comptroller General of Customs, Tayo Ogungbemile.
Folarin said, “We are all aware of the challenges which have faced the maritime sector in the last two decades and the effects that have manifested in the decline and in some instances decay of both operational modes and infrastructure.
“There is no time more appropriate than now to address this situation and work towards re-engineering the entire sector to be competitive, productive and provide a strategic alliance with other sectors of the economy. You are indeed men and women of the immediate and the future particularly as we move slowly but surely towards the nation’s Vision 2020.”
He described the ultimate goal of the committee’s assignment as the provision of instruments that would guide and shape the round-table of a wider regime of participants, which would be the team to design the road map.
He added that the proposed road map was expected to regain the hope and aspirations of the nation’s maritime sector.
Folarin said participants at the round-table would include shipping experts, maritime human capacity development experts, academia in economics and transport and logistics, public service, marine engineering, maritime regulation, maritime law, ports and harbours practises, freight forwarding, haulage and logistics operators, terminals and bonded warehouse operators, ship building and repairs, intermodal systems including railways and inland waterways transport.
The NPCC Chairman thanked the steering committee members for committing their time and resources to the venture and expressed his confidence in their ability to deliver.
He said, “I am confident of the capacity of those present here; they are capable and possess the cognate expertise that will rescue and refocus the sector to the future. This in turn will transform the nation and enable it to fully maximise its potential and deliver on our dreams and desires of a vibrant and economic leadership on the continent and indeed in the maritime world.”
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