Nigeria Must Fully Harness Blue Economy Potentials, Say Stakeholders
. Tinubu Urged To Pay CVFF Funds
By Fredrick Wright
The Federal Government has been urged put mercineries in place to be able to fully harness the numerous potentials inherent in the blue economy.
Stakeholders, who gathered at the Silver Jubilee Anniversary of the League of Maritime Editors (LOME), in Lagos, charged the newly established Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, to hit the ground running, and engage in active synergy with major stakeholders to achieve it’s mandate.
The Guest Speaker at the event, Charles Okerefe, said the time has come for Nigeria to actualise the potentials in the marine and blue economy industry.
Okerefe, who is a Lecturer, Maritime University, Okerenkoko, said several elements of marine and blue economy needs to be fully harnessed to provide more employment and financial bouyancy for the economy.
He highlighted the key areas to include; Deepsea mining, Marine tourism, Shipping and port operations, Renewable energy, and Fishery, among others.
According to him, “A lot of our youths are still jobless, so we need to exploit all these areas to ensure that the necessary jobs are created while whealth is also created for the economy,”
Okerefe, however, emphasised that training is also very important in turning the potentials into reality.
Director, Press, Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Olujimi Oyetomi, assured the ministry’s commitment to work with all stakeholders to exploit the potentials of the blue economy.
He urged journalists to be patriotic and realistic when setting agenda.
President, League of Maritime Editors (LOME), Timothy Paul Okorocha, urged the ministry to be more sector specific in their programmes and to partner with stakeholders as at when necessary, to avoid creating gaps.
He urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), to move away from the ritual of endless talk and lamentations into doing the needful, the reconstruction of broken down asset and infrastructure.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to provide the Minister the needed impetus to bring an end to the unending rat race of the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) establish since 2003, to jumpstart a new lease of life for the for the capacity development of the indigenous shipowners.
This, he said would would enable Nigeria participate meaningfuly in our seaborne trade and especially with the proposed commencement of the implementation policy of the blue economy.
