The Federal Government has been urged to expand the port system through the development of green fields.
The fields,stakeholders said, should be driven by private sector investments.
This was part of the resolutions reached by private operators, investors and the academia at a conference organised by the Ministry of Transport in Lagos, last week.
The theme of the Conference was: Building a Sustainable Maritime Industry.
The conference also urged the Federal Government to provide the enabling environment and laws to protect such investments.
The stakeholders also urged the Federal Government to lift the economy by tapping into the opportunities in the sector.
The sector, the stakeholders said, is facing a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed so that Nigerian ports can compete favourably with neighbouring ports.
They identified lack of commitment, corruption, low productivity, inefficiency, non-competitiveness of the ports and high charges as the bane of the industry.
The ship owners at the forum urged the Federal Government to encourage coastal shipping development under the Cabotage regime so that shippers will utilise indigenous coastal vessels to move cargo from Western ports to Eastern ports.
The Federal Government,other stakeholders said, should conduct a post concession audit of the port concession implementation to ascertain that the achievement so far recorded match the expectations of the government.
The Federal Ministry of Transport, they said, should therefore, enter into alliances with other ministries and agencies to foster cooperation and effectively achieve the Federal Government’s economic agenda.
To reduce revenue leakages in the sector, the Minister of Transport was urged to adopt single a window project so that operational processes of the sector are automated from vessel reception processes, cargo handling and clearance so as to reduce human interface, encourage transparency.
Some of the resolutions of the conference, which was exclusively obtained by The Nation, include the following:
- A private sector driven development of truck transit parks in the country, while the government provides the necessary legislations and guidelines for the operation;
- Expansion of the port system through the development of deep sea port to foster competitiveness of Nigerian ports with ports in the West and Central African sub-region;
- Copying from the successes recorded in the telecommunications sector as well as the NLNG, instead of over-reliance on government funding;
- The need for the passage of the various transport sector reform bills currently before the National Assembly to give effect to the proposed reform in the sector;
- The review of Nigeria’s trade contract policy of FOB export and CIF import as the policy is injurious to the country’s trade interest;
- NIMASA was urged to partner with the relevant security agencies in ensuring and maintaining security and safety of the water ways;
- The Nigeria Shippers’ Council as port Economic Regulator should negotiate with operators to harmonise and approve benchmarks, standardise charges and services in the sector among others.
The stakeholders, apart from identifying lack of training and capacity building institutions as bane of the sector, the Ministry of Transport was urged to constitute a committee comprising of agencies under it to draw a strategic plan for the sector.