Capt Adamu Biu: Nigeria Maritime Industry Is Dying

The Nigerian maritime industry is now a shadow of its old self, so says the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Capt. Adamu Biu.
Capt. Biu, a master mariner, who spoke at a freight forwarders forum in Lagos on Monday lamented that the sector lacks adequate and well- trained hands that will take over the baton of leadership from the ageing practitioners.

The Nigerian maritime industry is now a shadow of its old self, so says the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Capt. Adamu Biu.
Capt. Biu, a master mariner, who spoke at a freight forwarders forum in Lagos on Monday lamented that the sector lacks adequate and well- trained hands that will take over the baton of leadership from the ageing practitioners.
The maritime expert, who is also due to retire from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council this year after successful completion of two tenures of four years each as the executive secretary of the council, lamented that the gap is dangerous for the industry.
But speaking at the forum, he said that; “we are all in the industry, some of us have been in it all our lives, some of us are just coming in and some are going out, but we know that this industry is not the one we met 40 years ago when some of us joined, the industry is dying”.
“The industry is dying because we are not training people, we just come, do what we have to do and go away, but today the trend is changing, you can see that today we are beginning to train people” he said in reference to the various programme
“I appeal to all of you stakeholders in the maritime industry to please try to emulate, let us try to train, let us try and prepare people who will take the baton from our hands, this is what will make the industry change, this is what will bring back what we lacked as when we were called to join the industry”.
Capt Biu however appealed to stakeholders in the maritime industry particularly those from the freight forwarding section that there is need for them to improve upon themselves as they play a major role in the Nigerian economy.
Speaking further, he said, “I will appeal to all of us that are in this industry particularly the freight forwarding sector, we all know that you could be a ship owner, you could be a port operator, you could be the shippers’ council or anything, you cannot succeed, no matter how professional you are without a well- trained freight forwarder, we all realise this and we have to support the freight forwarders and give them all the support they need”, he stated.
Corroborating him however, Chairman of the Ports Consultative Council (PCC) Otunba Kunle Folarin lamented that because of the situation in Nigeria, Ghana has recently turned out to be the destination of most Nigerian investors.