Preparations are in high gear for the second edition of the annual Taiwo Afolabi Maritime conference which has been slated for Friday, August 4, 2017.
The conference which is held in honour of Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, Group Executive Vice-Chairman, SIFAX Group, is an initiative of the Maritime Forum, University of Lagos and SIFAX Group.
The conference will have eminent maritime industry leaders, legal experts, academics, and university students drawn from about eight institutions converge to discuss on the theme, “Nigerian Port Reforms”, while the keynote address will be on “Developing Critical Port Infrastructure through Public-Private Partnership”.
Speaking on the forthcoming event, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi said that the need to deepen discourse around tropical issues in the country’s maritime industry as well proffer practical solutions to them gave birth to the conference.
He also said that the second edition of the conference will dwell on the infrastructural deficit in the maritime industry.
“The second edition of the conference would dwell on the infrastructural deficit in the industry. This is necessary in view of the challenges that port users, including regulatory agencies, investors, agents, clients, workers, among others, encounter in accessing, discharging and regulating port activities. This has a negative economic impact for all stakeholders, including the government”, he said.
According to him, experts have been invited to provide practical roadmap that will lead to concrete and sustainable solution to the problems.
“Distinguished experts have been invited as speakers to provide practical road map that will lead to concrete and sustainable solutions to the problem. I look forward to the useful insights based on years of industry experience that they will bring to the conference. I am convinced that such insights would be useful to the industry, the government and participants”, he concluded.
In the same vein, the President Maritime Forum, Mr. Ilemobade Olateru-Olagbegi, said the conference would be beneficial both to the industry and the students since it is an avenue to stimulate intellectual discussions between maritime experts and the university community, especially students with interest in the maritime industry, on contemporary issues in the industry, both locally and internationally.
Some of the speakers and discussants at the event include Princess Vicky Haastrup, Executive Vice Chairman, ENL Consortium; Mrs. Funke Agbor (SAN), Senior Partner, Adepetun, Caxton-Martins, Agbor & Segun law firm and a past President of Women's International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria; Major Henry Ajetunmobi, Executive Director, SIFAX Group; Mr. Bola Asiru, Director, Delloitte West Africa and Mr. Inam Wilson, Partner, Templars Law while the chairman is Mrs. Margaret Orakwusi, former President, Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NITOA).
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