Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, has said that the global maritime industry is currently worth over $6tillion annual revenue. They also stated that the revenue from the industry sustains economies of nations buy regretted that Nigeria is not partaking of this huge resources.
Speaking yesterday at the stakeholders validation meeting on the draft National Maritime Transport Policy held in Lagos, President of SOAN, Dr. George Onyong, said that about $16billion is generated daily by the industry dominated by foreign players who also play on the Nigeria’s territorial and coastal waters.
He explained that until a proper policy is put in place to ensure that Nigeria takes their rightful place in the global maritime industry, Nigerians and Nigeria will continue to lose out in these revenues generated from the industry.
He stated that when the Maritime Transport Policy is well harmonized, it will take the country to the level of prosperity that it truly deserves.
He stated: “As far as I know, this industry is a $6trillion annual industry and from our calculation and account, it can make $16billion a day, $980million an hour and $11million per minute.
“The first thing that comes to mind is, who are the people earning these monies, countries like Norway, Amsterdam, China and others. Norwegian waters are frozen for eight months in a year, so they have only four months of liquid water.
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‘‘Having said that, the difference is that Norway has up to 45,000 ships, and off-course China has over 50,000 ships; these are the people that make $11million per minute.
“So we say that this (maritime transport policy) is a step in the right direction but we must look at it very critically and look at the strategies that will take us there.’’
