FG to address maritime challenges through new policy

By Temitope Adebayo

The Federal Government as concluded all plans to release a new maritime policy aimed at tackling challenges faced by operators in the Marine and Blue Economy, especially in the port environment.

To this end, agencies under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy have held several meetings to fine-tune the new maritime policy.

The ministry and its agencies are also holding meetings with different stakeholders in the sectors to address challenges with a view of finding permanent solutions.

Disclosing this in Lagos, the Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, Pius Akutah said that the new policy which is expected to be all encompassing, will be ready soon.

The Shippers Council boss disclosed this during the tour of some port terminals in Lagos.

He explained that several meetings have been held at both the level of the agencies as well as with stakeholders alike.

According to him, “Yes, the immediate plan would be to look inward and see what we can do to help restructure the sector by way of agency collaboration, to restructure what is going on there.

“But the generality of it is to look at the efficiency of the port system, which cannot be achieved overnight, actually. It’s not a miracle, or it’s not a voodoo thing. But we will do our best to see that within the next four years, we will achieve the mandate of Mr. President to move the sector forward.

“The challenges are enormous, but they are not insurmountable. We are going to surmount them, and we have started already.