A Maritime expert, Chief Kunle
Folarin, says Nigeria can grow its maritime revenue by handling 25 million
tonnes of transit cargo for land-locked countries yearly.
Folarin, who is the Chairman, Nigerian Port Consultative Council (NPCC), said that apart from Nigeria’s potential in providing port services, it could also provide freight forwarding services for owners of cargo designated for the landlocked countries.
Folarin, who is the Chairman, Nigerian Port Consultative Council (NPCC), said that apart from Nigeria’s potential in providing port services, it could also provide freight forwarding services for owners of cargo designated for the landlocked countries.
“I can tell you that not less
than 20 to 25 million tonnes of cargo can pass through Nigerian ports every
year for landlocked countries. That is quite a lot and we can actually
provide leadership in transit cargo management,” he said.
“We can be the forwarding
agents, we can be the transporter for those cargoes as soon as they land in our
country and much more. I believe that it is the way to go. In actual fact,
is the only way.
“Nigeria has eight littoral
states that are actually on the Atlantic and therefore, that is a very strong
environment for Nigeria to engage and provide leadership and opportunity for
landlocked countries to use Nigerian coast as the corridor for their maritime
trade.’’
He advised that Nigeria should
key into the economic viability of service rendered by Niger Republic, which
had been building refineries.
Folarin said Nigeria could
serve as a service port, bearing in mind that Niger would be importing a lot of
heavy cargo for its industrialisation process.
“We can provide leadership
because we have the potential to do that. You can just imagine that those
countries we are talking, particularly Niger Republic, are now having
refineries, they had discovered oil,” he said.
“They could use pipelines
through our country to run into the Atlantic.
“They are importing quite a
lot of machinery and raw materials. They are trying to industrialise.
They are receiving heavy quantities of aid cargo, bulk cargo, wheat, even petroleum products.
They are receiving heavy quantities of aid cargo, bulk cargo, wheat, even petroleum products.
“We can actually provide
that. I believe that we can even be a service port, even if not for cargo.
“We can actually have a kind
of corridor here within our harbours, where we can repair vessels. We can do
dry dock, mandatory requirement for shipping.’’
Folarin said places like Las
Palmas, Tenerife and Canary Islands received over 2,000 vessels annually for
dry-docking, bunker supply and statutory maintenance, even though they never
had much cargo.
He, however, urged Nigerians
to take full advantage of its environment to provide maritime services to such
land-locked countries.