President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech, gave a snippet of his administration’s roadmap towards achieving a six per cent yearly output target.The country’s maritime sector, which is believed to generate N7 trillion in revenue yearly, appears to have been sidelined by previous administrations despite its enormous potential. ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA writes that the industry looks forward to the implementation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic agenda to kick again.
Others are job loss and unemployment of youths, regulatory inconsistencies and duplication of roles and a high rate of infractions by ministries, departments and agencies . Stakeholders lament that this has resulted in the high cost of doing business in the port environment, thereby discouraging importers and other investors.
Meanwhile, Singapore and Greece have leveraged the maritime sector to grow their economies, as it is one of the biggest revenue-generating industries globally. The General Secretary, the Association of Bonded Terminal Operators of Nigeria, Haruna Omolajomo, said it was important that the president’s economic agenda is implemented, noting that too many duplicated multi-purpose taxes imposed on importers are creating lots of challenges in the industry.
He said there should be an acceptable maritime regulator for all businesses to ensure that things are done right to avoid corruption and multiple taxation. “Every agency and government just do as they like without any control. This is also noticeable in the dwell time of vessels, barge operations and delay in the clearing processes of goods. This, most of the time, results in demurrage and high cost of clearing of goods,” he said.
Fatomilola urged Tinubu to create a ministry solely responsible for ports and maritime affairs as well as appoint an industry professional as a minister, noting that the industry is a blue economy business that has the largest employment of people globally and should not be joined to the transport ministry.
Nicol urged the new administration to appoint professionals in the maritime industry to take the place of chief executives while faulting the past administration for fielding political appointees that were unable to put policies that will make ease of doing business workable.