The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has predicted that Africa would be the next maritime investment haven.
He said that this would be possible with the potentials of the African maritime sector, competitive operating environment, proper regulation, incentives and infrastructural development.
Dr. Peterside who made this known while speaking on the theme “Promoting Sustainable Investment and Financing In Africa’s Shipping & Maritime Industry” at the Africa Maritime Summit which held during the recent London International Shipping Week 2017 in the United Kingdom, stated that Africa’s share of import and export trade and the world container throughput is on the increase annually.
The NIMASA DG who is also the Chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA) however regretted that Africa is still not a major player globally in maritime trade because of lack of strategic attention to the sector and pointed out that despite operating one of the largest ship registries in the world in Liberia; Africans do not own vessels to match the corresponding statistics of the large registry.
According to Dr Peterside "We are not among top ten ship owning countries, we are not suppliers of maritime professionals and we are also not a ship financing continent. While an African country is among top 10 global ship registries because Liberia operates an open registry, Africans do not own vessels. In fact African countries pay 40%-70% more freight on imports and exports due to poor infrastructure, high cost of insurance, piracy, low vessel owning capacity and poor ship connectivity”.
The NIMASA DG also noted that ship building, repairs and maintenance activities are near zero contribution to GDP of the continent. He urged African countries to invest in maritime infrastructure, cooperate among themselves and explore a continental Cabotage regime as recommended in the African Maritime Transport Charter for the benefit of intra continent trade.
He said immeasurable facts have proven that Africa is the next maritime investment desination, adding that 38 of 54 African nations are either coastal or island states. He further mentioned that the continent is one of the most endowed continents in terms mineral resources with 27% of the World’s arable lands.
“Because of our coastline of about 30,725kilometres hosting 90 major ports and our arable lands, Africa will continue to export Agricultural produce. Marine Transport accounts for 92% of Africa’s external trades and import, but Africa handles only 6% of global seaborne traffic with 6 ports in Egypt and South Africa handling 50% of this volume” he said.
Dr. Peterside pointed out that to advance the Intra-Continent trade accounts; countries must invest in new ports and terminals infrastructure, ship building, recycling, ownership and maintenance which are conservatively estimated at $14.2Billion annually. He further stated that there was need for a robust financing regime of the requirements for 13 Sub-Saharan Africa countries transport infrastructure, which is estimated to be $6.4 Billion and advised countries around the continent to address the acute dearth of relevant professionals in the sector.
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