Senate approves N1.3bn budget for marine transportation

The Senate Committee on Marine Transport has approved a budget of N1.3 billion for marine transport under the Ministry of Transportation in the 2017 budget proposal.

This was approved when the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Ameachi appeared before the Senators to defend his budget and also present the budget estimates for the Nigerian Shippers Council, Nigerian Ports Authority, and Nigerian Maritime.

The budget would be executed by the Minister of Transportation and the N1.3 billion refers only the operations of the Minister’s work as relates to the marine sector and doesn’t apply to the agencies under the ministry.

The agencies have separate budgets which they will defend on a later date.

Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Maritime Academy Oron and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).

According to the report the breakdown, seafarers development, NIMPORT, NIMAREX, WISTA will get N12,257,600.00, performance audit for agencies in Transportation – NIMASA, NPA, Shippers Council and MAN Oron is to gulp N1.1 billion, IMO conventions, elections into Category C of the IMO Council is budgeted N101,171,520 and the development of policies for participation of women in international shipping is given N21,530,760.00.

Mr Amaechi explained that other projects include; the nautical chart data base for ports and channels which will get N7,499,140 and the bathymetric assessment of dredged navigational channels will get N41,799,216.00.

He said that agencies under his ministry achieved milestones from the 2016 appropriation, giving a snippet into the agencies achievements.

The Minister said “the Nigerian Shippers Council consolidated on the initial gains as an economic regulator of the ports and evolved a new port order with clear legal and policy framework that emphasises efficiency and competitiveness of the Nigerian ports vis-à-vis the other competing ports in neighbouring countries of Benin, Togo and Ghana.

He added that, “the Nigerian Shippers Council has also gained overwhelming acceptance in the Ports industry and internationally, has embarked on bold Port Cost Moderating Exercise aimed at reducing the globally admitted high cost of Nigerian ports and has lunched the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Port Services Support Portal (PSSP) with the aim of identifying areas that are prone to corruption, proffer recommendations that would strengthen accountability and transparency with a view to eliminating corrupt practices at the Nigerian ports”.

The minister disclosed that, among others, the Nigerian Shippers Council has upgraded the Inland Container Nigeria Limited Bonded Terminal, Kaduna into the first Dry Port in Nigeria.

Other dry ports are at their various stages of development in the country.

He also listed the achievements of NIMASA, NPA, and Maritime University of Nigeria Oron.