The Federal Government of Nigeria has been charged to develop interest in the different modes of transportation as they are the moving force behind every economy.
\nSpeaking at a Roundtable Discussion at the International Maritime Press Center of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) on Tuesday, frontline transport analyst and planner, Dr. Segun Musa, stressed that effective transport sector is the driver of economic growth.
\nHe, however, regretted that the Nigerian government is not interested in the development of the sector but rather in generating revenue.
\nMusa, who is the President, Global Transport Policy and CEO of Widescope International Logistics Limited, stated that government is not adding value to the different modes of transportation while its investment in the rail subsector was misdirected.
\nHe decried the investment in coaches for moving passengers instead of locomotive engines and wagons for goods.
\nAccording to the transport planner, the railways can never be viable if it concentrates on passenger movement instead of haulage of wet and dry cargoes.
\nHe noted that effective transport planning would have made pipeline transportation a focus that would stop inter-state haulage.
\nHe maintained that globally tankers and trucks are not designed for long distances, warning that haulage cannot pilot the Inland Container Depots (ICD).
\nHe said running ICDs with haulage will be counterproductive and at a very high cost.
\nMusa also decried the neglect of the courier industry as another area of transportation that needs attention.
\nHe stated that the industry is less regulated and currently dominated by a few foreigners whereas indigenous companies should be encouraged to compete with these foreign actors in order to generate employment for teeming Nigerian youths.
\nThe transport analyst also enjoined the Nigeria Customs Service and all port operators to digitalized their operations, saying that Nigeria of today cannot afford to run a system in an analogue way.
\nHe stressed that it’s important for the country to migrate from analogue to digital operations to enhance ease of doing business in line with global best practices.
\nHowever, he commended Nigeria Customs for improving in its technology drive.
\nMusa described the creation of Blue Economy ministry as fraud, arguing that “blue economy has always been with us”.
\nHe advised that the Blue Economy ministry would have been made a department in the Ministry of Transport.
\nAccording to him, it’s not the minister that runs the ministry but the permanent secretary and directors, insisting that the creation of multiple ministries is a waste.
\nOn Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), Musa stated that the Fund has been used by the government as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) could not give an audited account of the money collected so far.
\nThough he argued that the CVFF belongs to the shipping stakeholders for building indigenous capacity but he believed the money is not there as they are being made to believe.
\n“If CVFF is still there it’s the one they just collected,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal Government of Nigeria has been charged to develop interest in the different modes of transportation as they are the moving force behind every economy. Speaking at a Roundtable Discussion at the International Maritime Press Center of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) on Tuesday, frontline transport analyst and planner, Dr. Segun Musa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6208,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6201\/revisions\/6208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}