Barely midway into the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the draft policy for the novel Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, has continued to gather dust at the Abuja headquarters of the Ministry.

 

The Ministry was set up as an offshoot of the erstwhile Ministry of Transportation to pilot and reposition the affairs of the nation’s vast maritime industry in line with global best practices.

 

Sadly, the national policy which was aimed at driving the ministry and the entire industry remains at its draft level, while the industry continues to operate under the unenviable status of “business as usual”, to the scorn and mockery of the international community which perceives Nigeria as the hub of maritime activities in the sub-region.

 

It took the outcry and intervention of notable non-state industry players to prevail on government, leading to a 2-day stakeholders’ engagements which were held in Abuja and Lagos in November last year, ostensibly to appraise the National Policy.

 

It can only be hoped that the rather belated stakeholders’ “hush-hush” engagements do not end up as an orchestrated gimmick to pacify public yearnings.

 

While the new Ministry continues to grope in the dark without a clear direction or roadmap, industry pundits have maintained that the expected policy may not have been intended to be operational under the current administration, given the rather cumbersome legislative and judicial processes the Draft is expected to pass through before it becomes operational.

 

Consequently, the nation’s maritime sector has remained in its sorry state, riddled in the same unpopular actions, same degree of negligence and operational inefficiencies albeit with the mere change of its nomenclature to “Marine and Blue Economy”.

 

A peep into the framework and content of the Draft Policy has gladly revealed that the Nigerian maritime industry can indeed be great as it will address all the perceived and real setbacks that have stagnated the growth of the sector.

 

The policy, if implemented, will provide the necessary impetus for the successful establishment of a national shipping line as a major prerequisite to frog leap the industry back to its pride of place.

 

Unarguably, the policy has provided the pathways for the government’s requirements in addressing certain imperatives to ensure its success, sustainability, and relevance in the comity of global maritime nations.

 

Sadly, the slumbering National Maritime Policy is tailored to provide a comprehensive guide for the operations of an established shipping line as well as ensuring its alignment with international maritime standards.

 

The policy also provided the necessary legislative backing by way of enacting laws to protect the national shipping line from undue competition and establishing its mandate, ownership structure, and funding mechanisms.

 

Asides from providing incentives and subsidies to the industry operators by way of granting tax holidays, subsidies, and access to government cargo to help the shipping line compete effectively, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) regime will be encouraged with private investors and maritime stakeholders collaborating to share risks, reduce the burden on government finances, and enhance operational efficiency.

 

In the area of equity investment, private sector ownership will certainly be encouraged to foster transparency, accountability, and profitability. It is by so doing that sustainable financing and capital mobilization can be introduced to secure funding through government budgets, international loans, grants, and private equity to acquire and maintain a modern fleet.

 

With this, a viable system of transparent management of funds and proper use of resources to avoid corruption and financial mismanagement will govern the industry, away from its current state of unbridled mismanagement and corrupt practices.

 

Capacity building and human capital development is another major area of benefit the maritime industry stands to witness if the sleeping Draft Policy is urgently taken up and transmuted to reality as more of trained Nigerian seafarers, maritime engineers, and logisticians who daily pound the streets in search of elusive jobs will be gainfully employed to staff and operate the emergence of a viable shipping line.

 

Maritime institutions like the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) also stand to benefit from the implementation of a workable maritime policy by way of providing quality education and certifications aligned with international standards.

 

Allied to the above, strategic partnerships and alliances by way of international collaboration to forge partnerships with global shipping companies and alliances to gain access to trade routes, logistics expertise, and technical know-how are other benefits waiting to be tapped if the draft becomes real and operational.

 

To this end, the body of  Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) calls on the Presidency to urgently deploy whatever is required to dust off the Marine and Blue Economy Draft Policy out of its current state of seeming abandonment and let it become effective as intended.

 

We strongly believe that a workable policy such as the draft portends, will promote regional cooperation and leverage Nigeria’s position in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union  to dominate regional shipping and drive trade under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

 

We cannot take our eyes off other notable benefits that will accrue in implementing the policy which includes; infrastructure development and ports modernization to handle large vessels efficiently, reduce turnaround times, and eliminate bottlenecks, ships building and repairs as well as the establishment and expansion of shipyards and dry docks to reduce dependence on foreign facilities for maintenance and repairs.

 

These derivable benefits and many more must not continue to elude Nigeria, hence it is important that there should not be further delays in continuing with the last November dual stakeholders’ engagements towards rolling out the policy.

 

Nigeria must wake up to the reality of the fact that the country needs to be strategically focused on the ways and means of evolving a policy that mandates the use of the national shipping line for government cargo, crude oil exports, and imports.