Lack of development master plan, destroying Nigerian Maritime Economy- Otunba Kunle Folarin

Shipping as a primary logistics provider is critical in growth of Nigeria’s economic development. However, without a development master plan, the Nigerian maritime economy will continue to crawl.
Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council, Otunba Kunle Folarin has said the lack of development master plan is destroying the Nigerian Maritime Economy.
Folarin who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with TNG noted that the government has to be able to forecast to know the demand profiles in terms of needs in the next 30 years.
“Going down memory lane, he said: “For instance I know that in China the 2055 port plan has been approved .You have to be able to forecast. You have to be able to merge the macroeconomics with the microeconomics to know the demand profiles in terms of needs in the next 30 years.30 years is a generation in demography. We must be able to know that this marina is not going to be enough. This road ways is not even enough we should know now. We should know now that we need 11 lane road to evacuate cargo to Epe not to enter metropolitan Lagos.
“We need to know the volume of cargo from the Badagry axis of the road so that we can stop any discharge from Badagry proposed port to go from Okokomaiko straight to the north without ever entering Mile 2”.
He averred that a master plan is needed in dealing with ports development in Nigeria.
“You need a master plan in dealing with ports development. You need a plan that sees all as one. If you look at issues of ports development, it was to create corridors for the expansion or development in cargo volumes in the western part of the country. The cargo characteristics changed from consumer goods to industrial goods. The cargo characteristics changed from bulk cargo to liquid and dry bulk cargo”.
TheNewsGuru recalls that Hajia Hadiza-Bala Usman, the Managing Director of the NPA had recently cancelled the contract for the $2.6bn Badagry deep seaport project, stating that the deep seaport master plan was wrongly done.
According to her the Outline Business Case for Badagry deep seaport was recently reviewed and some responsibilities of the government were taken and put in the OBC for Badagry port. She stated that roles like marine services are responsibilities of the government as stipulated within the Port Act.
She further reiterated the need for a master plan.
In her words: “We also understand that they will need a Port Master Plan. That is also a challenge that we have with the Badagry project. When I assumed office, I inherited a consultant that was supposed to do a Port Master Plan for the Badagry project, but the consultant did a very bad job. When we took the job to the consultant that did the project’s Terms Of Reference, our internal people looked at it and said it wasn’t good enough. Even the consultant that did the TOR confirmed that the job wasn’t properly done.
“So because of these issues, we cancelled the contract, and the project’s promoters took us to court. We are currently in arbitration. Now we are working on re-awarding the contract. I just gave the go-ahead for the engagement of another consultant that will do the Port Master Plan. The master plan will allow us to know where ports should be deployed in the country in-view of environmental issues, in view of commercial and financial liabilities.
“If you look at the Badagry and the Lekki deep seaport projects, they are all within the Western ports. The port master plan will guide us on whether it is okay to have two deep seaports in close proximity to each other”, she told newsmen.