Shippers Council seeks Nigeria to become West Africa’s maritime hub
“The inland waterways and rail linkages are the moving parts that should come together for us to achieve the ultimate objective of ranking as a premium, proper maritime power,’’ he said.
Nigeria will become the maritime hub for West Africa if it developed its ports infrastructures to meet global standards.
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr Emmanuel Jime made the declaration on Thursday in Lagos.
“Unless we focus on the development of our infrastructure and make them of international standards, we will not achieve our objective of being a maritime hub,’’ he said at a meeting with newsmen.
Jime noted that the current major mode of cargo evacuation in Nigeria focusing on the road network was not the sustainable way of delivering port services in other parts of the world.
“The inland waterways and rail linkages are the moving parts that should come together for us to achieve the ultimate objective of ranking as a premium, proper maritime power,’’ he said.
Jime added that Nigeria also needed to strengthen its weak regulatory framework at the ports to make the country’s ports more attractive to global trade.