Hajia Mariam Ciroma on Monday assumed duty as the sixth Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Lokoja with a call on the staff to support and cooperate with her administration.
Ciroma, a former Minister of Women Affairs, said that the support of staff and other stakeholders was critical in her new position, adding that she knew almost nothing about marine issues.
The new MD said that the main task before her was how to transform the water transportation sector and make it a major revenue earner for the country.
Hajia Mariam Ciroma on Monday assumed duty as the sixth Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Lokoja with a call on the staff to support and cooperate with her administration.
Ciroma, a former Minister of Women Affairs, said that the support of staff and other stakeholders was critical in her new position, adding that she knew almost nothing about marine issues.
The new MD said that the main task before her was how to transform the water transportation sector and make it a major revenue earner for the country.
She promised to attract investors to the sector and ensure that more Nigerians utilised the waterways to transport their goods and services, thereby reducing the pressure on the nation’s roads.
Ciroma also promised to run an `open door’ policy, saying that being a critical parastatal that could fast track the nation’s economic growth, “NIWA cannot afford to fail’’.
In his hand over speech, the agency’s former Managing Director, Alhaji Ahmed Yar‘dua, mentioned the dredging of the lower part of River Niger as one his major accomplishments while in office.
He identified inadequacy of qualified staff as a major challenge facing NIWA, and urged the new helmsman to give recruitment of qualified personnel a priority.
Yar’dua also stressed the need for regular training and re-training of NIWA staff to meet with the current challenges in the water transportation sub-sector.
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