Not less than N1 trillion is lost by the maritime sector of the economy annually due to the poor state of infrastructure in the country, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Starz Marine and Engineering Limited, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun has said.
Besides the poor state of infrastructure in the country, the renowned indigenous ship owner added that the maritime sector is also losing the whopping amount as a result of the dearth of vessels, paucity of human capacity and cargo carriage.
Ogbeifun who is the immediate past President, Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) disclosed this recently at the national discourse with distinguished maritime personalities organised by Maritime Nigeria Limited which has a Lagos base maritime journalist, Mr. Igho Kelvin Kagbare as its CEO.
His words: “This country is losing close to N1 trillion in the entire shipping sector to infrastructure, human capacity, and cargo carriage”.
As a way of addressing the challenge, he called on the private sector in the shipping subsector to establish platforms to help actualise the policies in the sector.
According to him, President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done the right thing by separating the maritime industry from the Ministry of Transportation. However, there are still hurdles that need to be addressed.
