Translate Marine Advantages To Economic Prosperity, Dantsoho Tells African Countries

The president of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, on Monday said African countries urgently need to translate their marine comparative advantages into opportunities for their collective prosperity.

Speaking at the PMAWCA Boards of Directors and Ports Statisticians Network Meetings in Luanda, Angola, Dantsoho, who is also the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), stated that the sustainability of African countries rests heavily on the sustainability of their seaports.

According to the PMAWCA boss, countries in West and Central Africa are connected by challenges and opportunities, in addition to being linked by water.

“The need to translate our marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of our respective countries has never been more pressing than it is now.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the demonstrated global leadership of ports in the contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) shows that the sustainability of the world, especially Africa, rests heavily on the sustainability of our Ports.

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“As I stated last week in my engagement with the PMAWCA Women Network at the NPA headquarters in Lagos, apart from being linked by water, challenges and opportunities link countries in West and Central Africa. With the increasing realisation of the leverage that economic cooperation confers in the international arena, we will be doing a great disservice to ourselves if we fail to maximise this unity through intensified collaboration of our ports.”

Dr Dantsoho further emphasised that data remains the major driver of effective decision-making in Port Management.

“Coming together with the Statisticians Network, this meeting presents an innovative model for regional synergy and partnership, which this administration intends to champion, especially given that data remains the major driver of effective decision-making in Port Management.

“Coming together with the Statisticians Network, this meeting presents a smart model for regional synergy and partnership, which this administration intends to champion, especially given that data remains the major driver of effective decision making in Port Management.”

Dantsho commended President Bola Tinubu for creating the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, saying it has made implementing audacious plans for the sector easier.

“The visionary creation of the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has energised our resolve to invest more in sector-specific talent development to harness more ideas from operational think tanks such as the PMAWCA.

“The administration of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made the implementation of our audacious plans easier with the visionary creation of the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which has re-energised our resolve to invest more in sector-specific talent development to harness more ideas from operational think tanks such as the PMAWCA.

“Statisticians Network, whose capacity we have a renewed commitment to deepen through expanded training opportunities across member ports. The modernisation of our ports and full automation of our processes through the Port Community System (PCS) and its corollary, the National Single Window (NSW), which is gaining momentum, must be accompanied by strengthened economic cohesion among PMAWCA members. We would like to register Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to achieving this as soon as possible.

“The specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which includes the progressive elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, liberalization of trade in services and cooperation amongst others is pregnant with a lot of opportunities for wealth creation and prosperity, which I am convinced that our partnership and holding of hands under the umbrella PMAWCA will equip us to safely midwife for the benefit of our respective national economies with domino effect on the economy of the sub-region.”

“At the Board of Directors’ meeting, we will be reviewing the outcomes of 2024 activities, examining our recommendations and budget, as well as deliberating on the strategic direction of our esteemed Association.”