sea port

How to unlock maritime potentials

by emeka akabogu

Emeka Akabogu, maritime lawyer, activist and shipping aficionado believes Nigeria’s maritime industry hold enormous potentials. In a chat with gNewsgate, Emeka passionately examines the sector and proffers solutions.

Maritime potentials remain untapped, what’s to be done?

The maritime industry is not properly regulated because the regulators at the moment are themselves involved in the financial transactions and tend to relax in order not to hurt their interests. So there is sub-optimal regulation as far as the rules and regulations are concerned. Every industry’s sustenance and growth is about providing solutions and adding value. If you provide solutions and add value, the industry will grow and you the service provider will grow too. As it is at the moment, the rules and regulations are not faithfully, transparently and value-addedly enforced nor implemented and so operators are not as compliant as they should be. If individual or corporate players do not add value, it means they are not competitive, if you are not competitive you cannot add value, if you do not add value the industry cannot grow so we remain stagnated. To unlock the maritime potentials and create more wealth, we must ensure that the rules/regulations are faithfully implemented and enforced and that operators remain competitive and value adding. If this is done i am confident that the maritime industry will grow and empower the people more.

Do you think investors/operators are doing well?

Every businessman wants to make profit. Here again, the regulators have a big role to play. Our regulators have to ensure that investors/operators add value while making profit. Because, the truth is, if investors see that they can make money without adding value, they will and remit such monies to their countries of origin without caring what happens here. But if the regulators are alive to their responsibilities, if they are up and doing, the investors/operators will sit up and be careful. They will play by the rules and avoid sanctions because any wrong signal from here could affect their investments elsewhere. I believe the industry has for many years been traditionally challenged by regulation because government has not shown the necessary interest, passion and the required attention to drive the sector…

Are you saying the existing regulatory bodies are not delivering on their mandates?

 They are doing their best. I know they have their challenges and constraints but i believe they can and should do more.