By Ade Jacobs
The National Maritime Transport Policy has been developed by the federal government to draw more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into the country and boost Nigeria’s share in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Gbemisola Saraki, the Minister of State for Transportation has said.
The minister said this in Lagos at the opening of a stakeholders’ validation forum on the draft policy. She noted that the transport policy would give Nigeria pride of place in (AfCFTA) agreement, the free trade area, world’s largest, founded in 2018 and has come into effect on January 1, 2021.
The meeting was organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation to get stakeholders’ contributions, as the policy document was being fine-tuned. The transport policy is expected to usher in a regime of robust maritime transport systems in the country in line with international best practice.
Saraki underscored the strategic economic importance of maritime transportation, adding that the adoption of the transport policy would mark a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s economic competitiveness.
The minister said “The National Maritime Transport Policy is a framework that will guide and sharpen the activities, actors and modus operandi in the maritime sector. It is an all-encompassing document that will skyrocket the sector to compete favourably in the global market. That is why this document is extremely important and crucial to the development of the sector.”
She said the policy, which industry stakeholders had clamoured for since nearly two decades, “will change the narrative in the maritime sector of our dear country and result in a paradigm shift that is generational.”
Saraki added, “It is encouraging to know that the maritime policy is coming up at a time when Nigeria has ratified the AfCTA Agreement and deposited it with the AU Secretariat. This is an agreement that will place Nigeria in place of leadership if we adequately prepare for the protocols. Therefore, it is expedient for us to make the maritime sector ready for the AfCFTA Transit Protocols and other international protocols for us to compete favourably in the regional and global market.”
Nigeria deposited its instrument of ratification of the AfCFTA agreement on December 5, 2020, becoming the 34th member state to formally ratify the treaty. The free trade area was created by 54 of the African Union’s 55 member states. It is the world’s largest free trade area after the World Trade Organisation, WTO and a game-changer in African and world trade, with a market of more than 1.2 billion people, about $3 trillion combined GDP, and the potential of growing intra-African trade by over 50 per cent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Chairman of the National Maritime Transport Policy Committee, Dr. Paul Adalikwu, said, “The maritime sector cannot be administered successfully without a policy document that contains genuine, reliable and updated data” that can stand the test of time.
Adalikwu, who is also Director in charge of Maritime Safety and Security in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, said the maritime transport policy document is aimed to develop “a maritime industry that is income generating, self-sufficient, competitive with comparative advantage in the regional and global markets.”