From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The management of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the government of Bangladesh have agreed to collaborate in exploring mutual benefit in the areas of Waterways.
The agreement was made when the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Nigeria, His Excellency Masudur Rahman, led a team on a courtesy visit oh the Managing Director of the agency, Dr George Moghalu, in Abuja on Friday.
Masudur, while stating his mission, invited NIWA management to Bangladesh to explore potential areas of mutual benefits.
According to him, the areas of mutual interests will include dredging and cultivation of agricultural products along various river basins across the country.
Responding to the requests, the Managing Director, expressed readiness to collaborate with the country, insisting that development of Waterways will contribute to economic growth.
Admitting that he accepted the notification for the visit because of the country involved, he said: “I felt very excited about your visit because I know that Nigeria has a lot in common with Bangladesh.
“Apart from the fact that we are both large countries, waterways and diversities in language, religion and tribe, we also share common sentiment with Bangladesh.
“For us in NIWA, we appreciate the potentials and enormity of what the maritime sector can make in the development of the economy. We also believe strongly that if we develop our Waterways it comes with lots of advantages that will bear heavily on the GDP of our country.
“It may interest you to know that you can reach 28 out of our 36 States in Nigeria through the Waterways if we develop them. We have 10,000 kilometres of Waterways but as at now we have developed only 3000 kilometres currently navigable.
“We can learn much from you from what you enumerated especially in the areas of dredging, opening up our Waterways and gaining the economic advantage and exploration of gift of nature. We are also interested in boat building. It is one area we are laying emphasis in terms of training and development of capacity.
“We need to open up our Waterways to decongest the pressure we have on our road infrastructure. Major and bulk cargoes are usually moved by Waterways not by roads. The roads are not designed to carry these heavy cargoes,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Bangladesh High Commissioner said: “We will give support in seeking collaboration in the areas of dredging, training, creating riverbasin opportunities like fishing and agricultural products. Bangladesh has those opportunities and I think it can be a win- win collaboration between Bangladesh and Nigeria.
“Nigeria riverbanks are very fertile and could be potential areas of mutual collaboration. We can strengthen our bilateral relationship with the exploration of riverbanks.
“We have $410 billion economy today and our per capital GDP has risen three times despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, our per capital GDP is $2850 due to visionary leadership of our Prime Minister.
Bangladesh has almost 800 rivers nd 52 of them are international rivers mostly from India, China, and Nepal. We have been able to cope with flood control and management. We have created an economy based on flood. We have been able to transform the challenges into opportunities when it comes to turning the excessive water coming into Bangladesh.
“We are the third largest fish producing country in the world. Bangladesh has food surplus based on the management of water in the reserves. We use the water reserves for irrigation.
“We also have dredging and bridge projects going on. The ongoing projects will impact the economy by 1.3 per cent and reduce poverty by 1.8 per cent. The infrastructural projects are always paying off.
“I also noticed that Nigeria has rivers if explored can provide huge opportunities. The rivers can also act as connectivity with other regions and equally generate employment,” he said.