National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) says the agency is collaborating with Europe and China on waterways development, through the understudy of the major rivers in the world located in those countries.
Mr Danladi Ibrahim, Acting Managing Director, NIWA, said this in an interview in Abuja.
He said that NIWA was also entering into agreement with those countries on technical collaboration to assist the agency with expert that would train its staff from time to time.
“We have undergone some studies of the major Rivers in the world, for instance, we have studied the Danubi river, which crosses about 10 European countries, we are also understuding Rhine River in Europe.
“And the river that crosses the city of Changjiang in China and as a result of this, we are entering into agreements with them for technical collaboration between NIWA, Europe and China.”
According to him, the partnership is on technical areas, exchanging technical knowledge, they will also be assisting NIWA with the training of the staff.
“The collaboration is for general development of inland waterways system, in terms of ports, in terms of general management, and dockyards.”
“The best way to develop infrastructure for water development is to partner with the private sector,” Ibrahim said.
He said that involving the private sector was expedient because government cannot do it alone, it cannot do it perfectly because it’s capital intensive.
The managing director, however, said that even in developed countries, substantial part of development are on Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Ibrahim, however, said that the only way to develop infrastructure in Nigeria was through PPP.
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