Barr Chris Ebare (Chairman, Institute of Chartered Ship Brokers)
The truth is that so far so good, the most important thing is he has been able to settle down. He has been able to set up a group, although he is not a professional in the industry. But I think with the pace in which he started, I hope he has to keep it up. He will be able to really do more for the industry. What we advise is that he really needs more professionals around him. I have been able to interact with some of his aides, some of his directors and the rest, I just observe that he is not really grounded and he needs professional experts. I mean those who tell him what he should do.
To tell you the truth, the industry is about growing the maritime sector, moving the shipping industry forward in Nigeria, so that we measure up to standards. It is not sentiment at all. I think as my general assessment so far, he is an insurance expert. So far, I think he has tried to weather the storm in spite of the pressure here and there, but he needs to buckle up.
Clinton Okoro (APFFLON PRO, Tin Can Chapter)
To me that Ministry is even a scam, because nothing is working. The man is still trying to find his feet, to see how he can be able to perform well. He has been having constant meetings with the Shipper’s Council. In fact, there is confusion everywhere between the ministry of transport to that of marine and blue economy. That is the truth. We are arguing that CRFFN is supposed to show responsibility for freight forwarders, because they are the regulators. Even though we know they are not measuring up, all these are things the blue economy minister is supposed to have waded into and see how to separate all these power tussles. So nothing is happening. I have not seen anything.
Rilwan Bello (Vice President, NAMTOP)
It’s a huge disappointment. We thought he would really make a huge difference especially when we have a brand new ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. It is a colossal failure knowing that he could pioneer new structure and formulate new ideas to really change things around . Ship owners are not happy even truckers are still finding it hard to stay in business. It is quite unfortunate.
Otunba Sola Olatunji (Shipowner)
What else can we say? We are all aware of what has been happening in the maritime world. Nothing has changed in the industry. The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy that was newly created is yet to achieve its potential. That institution was meant to build human capacity and expand fleets. I doubt if anything has changed. We look forward to an improvement of the maritime sector under his leadership.
Sir John Oforbike (ANLCA Chieftain)
We only know that there’s a new minister and a new ministry called Blue Economy ministry. This means we have not felt any impact of the Ministry. Probably he is still studying his ministry after one year of creating a new ministry. If I’m not mistaken, someone should show us his impact so far during this first year tenure as a minister. Let us be honest to ourselves and remove politics from it. Honestly speaking, I have not seen anything, no positive impact yet from him as the Minister.
Taiwo Fatomilola (National PRO AREFFN)
I have not seen anything new in the industry since the new ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was created neither have I seen any impact of the ministry on the maritime industry at large. We were hopeful that things would change positively in the industry when the Ministry was created but in summary, it is all around failure. That is the truth.
Bala Muhammed (General Secretary, AMATO)
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy has performed excellently due to the fact that he has tremendously raised the marine revenue generation by 92 percent, for instance, from $126 billion to $242 billion through the Nigerian Port Authority and NIMASA through the deployment of modern technology. If you look at it, the ministry has emerged as the best-performing ministry in terms of Ease of Doing Business ranking by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). He also gingered the joint implementation of the Nigerian Port Process Manual on board Vessels and Operation Port Corridor. He also introduced a comprehensive four-year key performance indicator implementation to guide the ministry and the agencies under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. So while acknowledging this achievement, we are yet to feel the impact of the Minister in the haulage sector of the maritime industry because there are so many problems that are taking a serious toll on the transportation business.
