Shippers’ Council Rallies Port Operators Over Tinubu’s Trillion Dollar Economy Projection

The executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Pius Ukeyima Akutah, on Thursday, said that the Marine & Blue Economy Ministry is pivotal to President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s achievement of a trillion dollars economy by 2026.

Speaking during a familiarisation visit to Tin Can Island Container Terminal and Port and Cargo terminals, Apapa, Akutah, stated that port efficiency and automation will increase vessel dwell time and cargo turnaround time.

According to him, his visit to the terminals was to court the operators’ support as the administration sought to rebuild the sector through private sector participation and investment.

“President Bola Tinubu, is looking at moving from a billion-dollar economy to a trillion dollar economy by the end of four years and the Marine and Blue Economy ministry is one of the pivotal ministries that will drive this economy to that extent. And if you see what the president is trying to do in the sector, it is to rebuild the entire sector from the marine aspect and bring the blue economy into it and you know that this is heavy investment.

“I am not just looking at government investing in the entire sector but we are looking at collaborating with the private sector so we will provide an enabling environment for the private sector to invest heavily in the sector to achieve the dream of the sector.”

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Speaking about the challenges inherent in achieving the trillion dollar economy such as dilapidated port infrastructure, cost of doing business among others, the Shippers’ Council boss, said the minister was developing a holistic blueprint to solve the challenges.

“The immediate plan will be just to look inward and see what we can do by way of agency collaboration to restructure what is going on but the generality of it is to look at the efficiency of the port system which cannot be achieved overnight. We would do our best to see that within the next four years, we would do what it is to move this sector forward.

“The challenges are enormous and  surmountable. We are going to surmount them and we have started already. The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy is already looking at developing a holistic blueprint-a new policy document that captures all of the infrastructure deficit, decay and automation of the system in the port management so that at the end of the day, it is to look at the whole system and see what can be done.

The policy document will soon be out and it will guide us on how to approach issues in which port efficiency is a major focus.”

Akutah further stated that the Council targets implementation of International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN), before the end second quarter of 2024.

“The present government is looking holistically at the sector to see how the new policy document will address all of these challenges to drive the process of renewing our ports. We are going to have a holistic renewal of the port reconstruction of the port which portends danger for future use and we would see how NPA can quickly come in to reconstruct the collapsed area Cargo Tracking note.

“Based on the KPIs of the Shippers Council given by President Tinubu, the NSC is going to achieve the implementation of ICTN by the third quarter of 2024 but we are looking at an earlier date as we are working with the stakeholders to know how we can achieve that by second quarter of 2024, therefore, by then, we should have the cargo tracking note,” he assured.

Speaking earlier, the managing director of the TICT, Etienne Richer, stated that the terminal has invested over $190million in the nation’s maritime sector.

Rocher also bemoaned non-linkage of the Tin-Can Island port to rail line, saying importers, thereby, resorted to using barges to evacuate cargoes from the terminal.

“So far, we have invested over $190million in equipment, infrastructure. We have also employed over 1500 Nigerians directly and indirectly. We also pay our taxes to the government in terms of royalty,” he stated.

Also, the managing director of Port &Cargo, John Jenkins, assured the Shippers’ Council boss of collaboration to achieve the president’s vision in the maritime sector.

He said, “the terminal is open and willing to collaborate with the council to achieve the vision of the president,” he stated.