A former Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS); Dr. Sola Afolabi has said that the nation does not have a trade policy, especially in the maritime sector.
Afolabi also said that Nigerians are not asking for much adding that what the citizens need is for the few policy or statements or directives that are in place be implemented.
Afolabi who is also Senior Regional Technical Advisor, Trade Africa Project United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said this last week in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos.
He however maintained that if the nation can fully implement 10% of the existing statutes and treaties, the country would have moved forward even as he stressed the need for aviation and maritime industries to be given utmost attention.
“If we implement just 10% of existing statutes and treaties, we will not be where we are today. The aviation and the maritime are the gateways; you can have any trade without them even the land transport they are supplementary. The aviation and the maritime are the key gates to the country so they are very relevant in both the policy development and the policy implementation”
Explaining further, he beckoned on the private sector to synergize in other so as to move the sector forward.
“It has been said and it is true that government needs to create an enabling environment to facilitate trade and to promote trade. The private sector themselves have to help the government because over the years, talking about 30years now the private sector have to come together and present to the government what they are likely to do and not what they want the government to do for them”
“Just like the road construction going on in Apapa, the private sectors have to come together and tell the government what they want and what they are ready to do to contribute to what the government is doing. It is working in other African countries and I don’t see the reason all those smaller countries should beat us on that”, he said.
“There are so many issues like roads, ports and all that, but the policies are the ones that will increase our trade and all that”
“If you want to sanitize the trucking system in Apapa that is private sector thing, the road is not good, build it, the electronic call up system is not good, put it in place. The private sector should work; not waiting for the government to bring the money, clear the roads. There are things that private sector themselves can do, make a railway straight to the ports from outside the state, these are private sector things”
Afolabi however frowned at the presence of so many government agencies at the ports.
“Now there is one delicate issue in Nigeria; talking about the presence of too many agencies in the ports, but the presence is not the same as contact and that is where we get it wrong. The fact that you are at the port does not mean that you need to be in contact with the operators. In most countries, it is just Customs and Immigration that are in contact with the operators. And if they need the services of any of the other agencies, they will invite them; they are present at the ports but they don’t have direct contact”, he concluded.
Discussion about this post