The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, in commemoration of President Goodluck Jonathan's 100 days in office spoke on issues meant to enlighten Nigerians on the state of the industry, and government's vision for the future. Dele Aderibigbe reports. Excerpts: Now that this administration has spent 100 days, what would you say is the ministry's strategy, as you advance in your mandate, towards effecting a positive turn-around sir'The Ministry's strategy in meeting its mandate is through the creation of conducive atmosphere for the operation of the Public Private Partnership (PPP). So far, the operation of the PPP arrangement has worked reasonably, to improve efficiency, especially in the ports. Obviously, 100 days may certainly appear too short to judge our overall performance but a journey of 1000 miles, they say begins with one step. We have taken that step and will continue to move ahead to offer Nigerians the much expected dividends of democracy under President Goodluck Jonathan, God willing.It will interest you to note that the Federal Ministry of Transport has, in the recent past, conceived a number of projects within the three critical sectors of Rail, Inland Waterways and the Maritime to drive the economic transformation of the present administration.For instance, on the Inland waterways sector, I'm happy to inform you that the capital dredging of the lower River Niger (that is between Warri in Delta State to Baro in Niger State) has now been completed. And the maintenance dredging is in progress. Already, some indigenous companies are making use of the facility to transport their goods and services at ease. I therefore wish to use this medium to call on investors to take advantage of the vast business opportunities that abound in this sector.Besides, the Onitsha River Port in Onitsha, Anambra State, has also been completed and will soon be commissioned. The completion of this port will allow businessmen to transport their goods and services through the River Niger as a transit and a delivery port; so, with the successful completion of the dredging of the River Niger, it is the intention of the Federal Government to commence the dredging of the River Benue, that is, from Lokoja to Markurdi, this year.The successful execution of this project will greatly throw open the vast economic potentials in our Inland waterways as well as the socio- economic development of towns along our coastal cities.What can you say about the Cabotage area'The government, in order to effectively implement the Cabotage regime in Nigeria, has approved the printing of the policy guidelines for the granting of ministerial waivers on Cabotage. Other areas of intervention include the setting up of a ministerial committee on investigation vis-a-vis delay in waiver processing and Cabotage implementation which has since submitted its reports. A ministerial committee on Cabotage implementation is to be set up.The Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), an intervention fund established by the Cabotage Act, 2003 aimed at assisting indigenous shipping operators to acquire new vessels so as to build indigenous capacity in the Maritime industry has also been fine tuned.The CVFF is sourced from the two per cent surcharge of the contract sum performed by any vessel engaged in any coastal trade. At present, modalities are being worked out by NIMASA for the disbursement of the fund to indigenous maritime operators.As for security and safety of the Maritime environment in recent time, the activities of pirates are already being seriously addressed. NIMASA is working out to tackle this problem in partnership with the private sector. So, in order to remove obstacles in our waterways, the ministry is developing a strategy on how to fast track the removal of wrecks and derelicts in our marine environment.And how far has the government gone regarding boosting the activities in the ports'Determined to boost operations in our ports, the ministry has planned the development of Green Fields Deep Sea Ports at Lekki in Lagos in Ibaka in Akwa-Ibom; Badagry in Lagos and Olokola in Ondo/Ogun States.Further to these, ports terminals have also been concessioned to both indigenous and foreign private terminal operators to improve efficiency, decrease cost of operation and accelerate development of the sea ports. This is meant to situate Nigeria as a hub for international freights and trade in West and Central Africa.In addition to this, the Federal government in line with its public private partnership (PPP) policy, ensures that concessionaries at our various ports terminals who are currently operating the nation's sea ports are closely monitored so as to ensure that the desired objective of the partnership is achieved. And to this extent, I am happy to report that in spite of the initial challenges, the ports concessioning is yielding positive results in the area of operational indices, such as: ship waiting time, turnaround time of vessels, dwell time of cargo, job creation and revenue generation.
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