CHARTING A FUTURE FRAMEWORK FOR THE NIGERIAN MARITIME INDUSTRY

In charting a future framework for the maritime industry of a developing country like Nigeria, some questions need be posed. Can Ithe maritime industry in its quest to harness its potentials and overcome its prevalent challenges be driven by state or private capital?

Can the industry really grow without the state investing in it; harnessing all of the collective wealth of society to bring the best out of it? Can it at the same time ignore private capital, and not make it attractive for investment for the overall development of the maritime industry?

Bearing in mind that investment is key to the growth of the industry, can any modern state afford to ignore the role of any of these two sectors and extremely or solely be dependent on one as opposed to the other or a combination of both? Set against this background, what are the most instructive perspectives that can serve as a guideline for the creation of a fitting model for the Nigerian maritime industry?

Increasingly, as gathered from consistent stakeholder views and advocacy over the last two years, there appears a trending that is more in favour of a lesser state-dominated sector with state actors playing largely enabling roles for a partnership with the private sector to thrive within the context of and bias for the national interest. This seems to be the way to go. Diversification of the economy entails the idea of bringing the needed expertise and sourcing private participation and capital to be invested in the infrastructural development of the maritime industry…………..