By Stephen Ubanna
Dayo Mobereola, who incidentally was a former Commissioner of Transportation under Babajide Sanwo-Olu, during his first term in office as governor of Lagos state and now Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety appears to have known the nitty gritty of the nation’s maritime industry and how to attract to attract private investors into the industry.
The forer Lagos state Commissioner who has never missed any opportunity to draw the attentions of investors, both within and outside the country on the need to take advantage of President Bola Tinubu favourable maritime policies to invest in the sector appears to have been making a way.
In spite of the success that had been achieved by the Mobereola’s administration in attracting investors into the nation’s maritime industry, he may have stopped in continuing the sensitization campaign as he had intensified on it.
The NIMASA Director General who has shown over the last one year that he has a vision to reposition the nation’s maritime where it can compete with other maritime nations where the maritime sector play a prominent role was said to have taken advantage of the Enugu International Trade Fair, in south Est Nigeria, where there are lot of business men and men to cal on the individuals and corporate organizations in the state and other parts of the south earn region ‘’to seize the emerging opportunities within Nigeria’s Blue Economy, to invest inn the maritime sector’’.
Umar Mohammed Salisu , a Deputy Director, in the Planning, Research and Data Management Department, who was said to have represented the ever-busy Mobereola, at the Enugu event was said to have highlighted ‘’ the agency’s commitment to implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu ‘’ while emphasizing ‘’the need for inclusive economic growth through indigenous participation in domestic and international shipping’’.
He was said to have made the potential south east investors who may want to invest in the nation’s maritime industry to understand that the maritime regulatory agency s not sleeping on its oars as ‘’it is pursuing an integrated development strategy that will support indigenous shipping companies in ship acquisition, establish a National Carrier Line and create Maritime Training Institutions for world-class Seafarers’’.
He did not stop there. He had said that that ‘’the agency is also implementing a Public Sector Cargo Support Programme aimed at creating captive freight market for carriers and reducing dominance of the foreign shipping Lines in Nigeria’s seaborne trade’’.
He may have spoken the mind of the NIMASA Director General when he stated that ‘’the agency’s strategic initiatives are driven through private partnerships to ensure sustainability and long- time impact’’.
Acting out a script, he had invited the south east investors and entrepreneurs to collaborate with the agency in developing a robust and competitive maritime sector that will ‘’create jobs and boost the national economy’’.
Expressing his appreciation to Ndubuisi Mbah , the Enugu state governor and the Leadership of the Enugu Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ECCIMA, for hosting the Trade Fair and for inviting NIMASA, to participate in the event, which he had described as a vital platform for business networking and investment drive, he had said that there is no other better opportunity other than this forum to do so.
He was said to have repeatedly made participants at the Enugu International Trade Fair to understand that ‘’NIMASA plays a key role in promoting the nation’s Blue Economy with its promotional responsibilities, being part of the mandate ‘’to regulate the nation’s maritime activities and ensure sustainable use of ocean resources as obtained in other maritime nations which had diversified into the Blue Economy to improve on its foreign exchange revenue generation.
