Now that we appear to have addressed the national carrier matter with Air Peace stepping into the void, we need to turn our attention to sorting out shipping next

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We all know we can trust Allen Onyema to make a success of his presence in the international aviation arena. In 10 years time, I expect Air Peace to be competing with the likes of Emirates, KLM, Ethiopian Airlines, Virgin, etc

[2] We now have a national carrier that will deal with passengers but to get Nigeria’s economy going, we also need a functioning shipping line to deal with freight too. How else are we going to export all the goods that we plan to manufacture?

[3] Maybe the first part of this plan should be the development, dredging and expanding the ports of Aiyetoro in Ondo State, Warri, Escarvos and Burutu in Delta State, Brass in Bayelsa State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Ikot-Abasi in Akwa Ibom State and Calabar in Cross River State

[4] We then need to create a private sector shipping line. Maybe companies that manufacture goods like Dangote Industries, Innoson Motors and the Ibeto Group should be the original stakeholders in the project

[5] Our next task will then be attracting shipbuilders and ship breakers into Nigeria. It is highly embarrassing that Nigeria does not have one shipyard. How can a nation have 800km of coastline and not even one boatyard? We need to also attract container manufacturers

[6] Gboyega Oyetola, our minister of marine and blue economy then needs to establish a Nigerian Coastguard Service. It should be their job to patrol our waterways and combat criminal acts like piracy, oil theft, arms smuggling, etc

[7] This ministry would also be handed the responsibility for eliminating gas-flaring in the Niger Delta. Its mandate should be to attract companies to build gas-fired power stations in the region. I want to see one or two companies also given contracts to build a massive Nigerian gas pipe network to distribute its products to every home in the country

[8] Our Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should also be responsible for expanding trade with central Africa. It should expand the coastal ports and have daily shipping services to places like Yaoundé, Douala, Libreville, Gaborone, Malabo, Brazzaville, Kinshasa, Luanda, etc

[9] Mr Oyetola’s ministry should also build a six lane motorway linking Ikot Nakanda in Cross River State with Cameroon. At the moment, if you want to drive into Cameroon you have to go all the way up to Ikom in central Cross River State. Along the coastline, if you want to cross the border, embarrassingly, you need to go by boat

[10] Ultimately, what we need is a West African Maritime Transportation Company to dominates the Ecowas market. It should have a cargo shipping arm and a passenger service. We should aim to build it up into a global shipping company that can compete with the big boys like Maersk, Hyundai, Hapag-Lloyd, Cosco, CMA-CGM, etc