The Port Management Association of West and Central Africa has stated that the sustainability of the world, especially Africa, rests heavily on the sustainability of its seaports.
According to Tuesday’s release, the President of the PMAWCA, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, disclosed this while speaking at the PMAWCA Board of Directors and Ports Statisticians Network meetings in Luanda, Angola.
He stressed the need for African countries to translate their marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of their respective countries.
Dantsoho, who is also the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, maintained that apart from being linked by water, countries in West and Central Africa are linked by challenges and opportunities.
“The need to translate our marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of our respective countries has never been more pressing than it is now. We must not lose sight of the fact that the demonstrated global leadership of ports in contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals shows that the sustainability of the world, especially Africa, rests heavily on the sustainability of our ports,” Dantsoho said.
According to him, with the increasing realisation of the leverage that economic cooperation confers in the international arena, “we will be doing a great disservice to ourselves if we fail to maximise this unity through intensified collaboration of our ports.”
Dantsoho further emphasised that data remains the major driver of effective decision-making in port management.
“Coming together with the statisticians’ network in this meeting presents a smart model for regional synergy and partnership, which this administration intends to champion, especially given that data remains the major driver of effective decision-making in port management,” he said.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for creating the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, adding that the creation of the ministry has made the implementation of audacious plans for the sector easier.
The NPA boss stressed that the creation of the ministry has re-energised the resolve to invest more in sector-specific talent development to harness more ideas from operational think tanks such as the PMAWCA.
Dantsoho maintained that the President Tinubu-led administration has made the implementation of audacious plans easier.
“The modernisation of our ports and full automation of our processes through the Port Community System and its corollary, the National Single Window, which is gaining momentum, must be accompanied by strengthened economic cohesion among PMAWCA members, and I would like to register Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to achieving this as soon as possible,” Dantsoho stated.
He highlighted that the specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which include the progressive elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, liberalisation of trade in services, and cooperation, among others, are pregnant with a lot of opportunities for wealth creation and prosperity.
