A former Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Hassan Bello, has advised the Federal Government not to increase the number of ports in the country without a specific purpose.
Speaking at a discourse in Lagos on Tuesday, Bello said Nigerians should stop building ports like constituency projects.
He reiterated that ports should not be built for the sake of having them but for their viability and ability to compete with other global ports in terms of infrastructure and linkage to the multimodal transport mode.
“The consignment that the port attracts makes it what it should be. It should have integration. We should not just build ports because we have water. Our ports must be efficient and must be competitive. You decide and have choices and design,” Bello said.
The former NSC boss said that competition was critical to the port development of any nation.
He maintained that for ports to assume that expected standard, they must be smart, efficient, and not be import dependent.
“Competition is critical to the development of ports but it looks like we don’t have it. Our ports must be smart, and a no-contact port must be efficient.
“Our ports are built to keep receiving and any nation that does that alone will die. The question of shipping will be decided if we decide what we want to be. Is it shipbuilding or ship repairs?” he added.
Bello called on the Federal Government to provide the requisite infrastructure for an efficient port and admonished that it should be left to the private sector to run for a desired goal.
“The government has a bigger role to play in shipping business of the nation but it should be led by the private sector,” he declared.
He blamed the stunted growth in the maritime and transportation sector on the interference by individuals who value their selfish interests above national interests.
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