Expert calls for consistency in maritime forecast

Dr Doyin Salami of Kainosedge Consulting has advised the Federal Government to elevate her annual maritime industry forecast to an inter-agency level whereby the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and her sister agencies are enabled to explore and project the latent potentials of the nation’s maritime sector for the good of the economy.

Salami made the submission during the second edition of the public presentation of Nigeria’s maritime industry forecast for 2019-2020 hosted by NIMASA with the theme: Harnessing the Maritime and Shipping Sector for Sustainable Growth, added that collection of data for this purpose must be progressive and sustained.

It would be recalled that the maiden edition of the public presentation of Nigeria’s maritime industry forecast took place in Lagos February 2018.

Salami, who spoke on Macroeconomic Perspective of the Nigerian Economy and its Maritime Sector, raised what he called issues of great concern in the maritime forecast for 2019.

“What are the potentials for the sector in 2019? What contribution is the maritime sector poised to make towards the country’s economic growth in 2019? What is the maritime output for the economy? Noting that the average performance of Nigeria’s maritime industry is still significantly below what it was before recession,

He stated that the elections and the aftermath represent the single biggest issue facing Nigeria and her economy in 2019.

Salami further admitted, however, that based on the outlook of economic indices presented by relevant industry projections, “the growth in 2019 will be marginally higher than that of 2018.”

His report dwelt on four main subsectors. These included the local and global economic environment within which NIMASA’s operations take place.

Some of the expectations, he said, are that the petroleum industry bill and the anti-piracy legislation would be speedily passed into law because of the huge impact their take-off stands to make on the possibility of achieving basic maritime sector goals in 2019 and beyond.

On emerging opportunities and challenges Nigeria’s maritime sector is grappling with, he announced that prominent among them is the issue of training of industry manpower especially seafarers.