By Steve Agbota
Mr. Ismail Aniemu is a distinguished figure in Nigeria’s maritime landscape, renowned for his over two decades of expertise and impact.
A seasoned industry expert, transport scholar and publisher, his dedication to excellence has seen him entrusted with roles on three high-level federal government committees, one of which is a presidential committee.
This accentuates his influence and credibility in shaping maritime policy and progress.
In this interview with Daily Sun, he emphasised the critical importance of the blue economy to Nigeria’s economic sustainability, describing the maritime sector as a cornerstone of the nation’s economic framework. He noted that Nigeria’s economy is deeply intertwined with ocean-based activities, stressing that effective government policies are essential to unlock the full potential of the ocean economy.
He also highlighted different issues such as the benefits of disbursing CVFF, the importance of the Port Community System, and other related maritime matters.
You’ve been on three different federal government committees, including one presidential committee. What was your agenda, and how can the industry draw from your efforts to get better
Yes, firstly, maybe I need to give you an overview of the workings of those committees. There was, first, Nigeria’s election into the IMO committee and Nigeria’s election into the Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa committee. At some point, they were both ministerial committees, but in the wisdom of the then Minister of Transport, they had to merge these two committees. What was our agenda? Our agenda was to ensure that Nigeria is properly represented by having a voice in the international maritime community. That’s at the IMO level.
But, as fate would have it, we were not fortunate enough at that time to get that aspect of it. But there’s a good story to it. The good story is that the Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa (MOWCA) committee succeeded in achieving its goal.
Nigeria, for the first time in the over 45 years of MOWCA’s existence, was able to produce the Secretary-General of MOWCA. And for us, that was a landmark feat because Nigeria, in West and Central Africa, commands what I would call the highest cargo throughput. We have the highest trade volume, even though there are gaps to be filled to make us the hub for shipping in West and Central Africa.
It’s not out of place for us to produce the Secretary-General of MOWCA, because in terms of our contribution to the good and growth of the organization, we have been up and doing. So, that is that for the ministerial committee. For the presidential committee chaired by the then Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, it was called the Expanded Partnership Committee on Sustainable Blue Economy.
As of then, if you recall, there was no Ministry of Blue Economy. So, we were the forerunners of the concept of the blue economy in Nigeria. There was no ministry then. So, under the Ministry of Transportation, some of us were brought in as committee members at an inter-ministerial level, because we had the Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Environment, and Ministry of Agriculture in the blue economy committee. And we had states — even states you consider to be non-littoral states. We had as many as six state governors in that committee.
Even the Governor of Borno was in that committee. So, you can see the concept of the blue economy — how wide it was from the planning stage we had. But, good enough, now we have a Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which is in pursuance of what our committee worked towards. And it’s also giving proper traction and attention to the blue economy agenda.
You will agree with me that Nigeria is, no doubt, a maritime country. Nigeria is more of a maritime country than the oil and gas we so dwell on. Because you can’t even ship oil, you can’t transport oil, import, and export it without vessels — without using the water. So, maritime — the blue economy environment — is pivotal to the sustenance of the Nigerian economy, to the economic mainstay of this country.
So, our committee was able to lay the foundation. And today, we have a ministry dedicated to that aspect of our national economic life.
As a key maritime stakeholder, what do you think are the key challenges facing the maritime sector? What are the key fixes?
Policies. You see, at the blue economy committee level, we had a nexus, a link with the states. But since the creation of the ministry, there have been some gaps. What are these gaps? Littoral states — states that are supposed to be the first link in the implementation of the blue economy agenda — seem not to be part of it.
I think our leaders are more carried away by the immediate frenzy of politics than by maximizing the advantages inherent in our waters. Let me quickly say that you can’t have the enormous maritime space we have, you do import and export, you have oil and gas, and you are shipping it through water — sometimes even drilling the oil in water — and you have marine resources that you are yet to tap, up to 40 per cent of it.
And somebody somewhere in the world brands you as the poverty capital of the world. Aren’t you embarrassed? As a Nigerian, I feel embarrassed. How come they gave us that badge? How come we carry that trophy? That somebody somewhere looked at us and said we are the poverty capital of the world — whereas we have no business with poverty, let alone becoming the capital.
Did you read that news? How did you feel as a maritime reporter, as a maritime journalist, as somebody who sees what Nigeria has in its maritime space?
So, the states, for me, are not carried along enough. The federal government discusses more of revenue collection, inland revenue, revenue sharing — going to federal allocation meetings to share money — more with states than telling them what they can do and how they can do it to make their maritime space give them more fortunes.
Now, it doesn’t even end with only states that have waters. Kaduna State, for example, has what I would call the first dry port in Nigeria. And that is an extension of maritime activities.
Government should do something to ensure that cargoes destined for dry ports get what we call a true bill of lading. So, even if they are going to arrive in Apapa, for example, they have been designated from the port of origin as cargoes destined for Kaduna Dry Port.
So, if it’s coming to Apapa, it will only arrive there and move to Kaduna. States are supposed to be pivotal — supposed to be at the fore — of implementing the blue economy agenda. It’s not something to be seen as a federal thing, like, “Oh, it’s a federal government project.”
If you concentrate or see it more as a federal thing, then the objective will fail. The benefit will not cascade. Because if the benefit doesn’t cascade down, the essence of the policy is defeated.
So, we need states to be more carried along. And there’s the need for more education. Carrying along, in this sense, is — most of the governors are even blind. Permit me to use that word. Maybe I’ll call it “river blindness.” They are not aware of what they can use the waters to do.
Maritime tourism alone should be a cash cow — a revenue earner. But how do we make tourism work in the maritime space? There must be adequate security. People cannot come as tourists to an environment where you still have stories of militancy, oil theft, NAVAL and private security companies clashing within your maritime domain, and no cohesion as to who is guarding the pipeline.
And sometimes, you see security work being given to private companies — maybe due to a vote of no confidence or lack of proper performance on the part of government functionaries that ought to have been discharging that responsibility.
Another aspect is the deployment of technology. We have not applied technology enough to boost the maritime industry — to boost the blue economy sector. Why am I saying this? The various surveillance installations we have with the Navy, the Police, NIMASA, and the Office of the National Security Adviser have not been enough to curb oil theft in Nigeria.
And when you ask me, so much has been invested in these facilities. Now, we need to get these facilities audited and properly coordinated by one office. We cannot work or operate in silos and expect to achieve maximum benefit.
What this summarises is that almost every government agency is pursuing an ego agenda. “I want to be seen to be working.” The Navy wants to be seen to be working. The Marine Police wants to be seen to be working. Customs Marine wants to be seen to be working. There is no central coordination.
And when this coordination is not there, the NIMASA C4I, the Police Falcon Eye — all the various Falcon that have not been able to see enough on our waters — will not give us maximum results.
So, it is government money that is being spent through different government agencies without coordination. Since it is one government money that is being spent, it should be coordinated.
In a way that if there are leakages, if there are failures, somebody is held responsible. That brings me to the issue of accountability. Where there are failures, there should be sanctions.
For example, if a naval formation is supposed to provide security in a particular part of a maritime domain, and there is compromise in that area, there should be sanctions. Somebody should be called to account. Somebody should be called to answer, to explain what happened.
If it is lack of platform, government should provide it. If it is lack of diesel for patrol to operate the platform, government should. If it is lack of personnel, government should.
Where we get our national money from to sustain Nigeria is never too much to invest so much to secure it. So, government ends up wasting so much — giving budgets to almost every agency to do almost the same thing — because they all have votes for maritime security surveillance. The Navy has, NIMASA has, Police has, the Office of the National Security Adviser has its own.
Now, everybody is checking the maritime domain, and there are still some pockets of compromises here and there. Oil theft — to the extent that government has to bring in a private company. It means all government investments in the past failed, for the government to bring in Tantita to do what the various government agencies ought to have been doing.
So, that is where I said accountability must come in. If people are not held accountable for their bits — accountable for what their responsibilities are — and the failures noticed in their areas of responsibility, then we will just continue to complain over and over again without having solutions.
Then politics. It is high time we divorced politics from maritime development. The critical role played by the maritime industry is not where anybody should use as a field for political settlement.
We need to do more. We need to do it in a way that will be sustainable and put the interest of the country at heart first in anything we are doing. I think those are the quick fixes we can apply.
What is your take on the planned disbursement of CVFF? Is it capable of developing local shipping firms? How can we ensure the beneficiaries don’t squander the loan?
Yes. The release of the CVFF fund, I wish, was done 10 years ago. So we are even late. We have dragged so much. And the world is not waiting for you. Even if we are partners with other countries, at some point, ship ownership will bring every country together, where they become rivals.
The Nigerian shipowner is a rival to a shipowner in another country. While other countries may have used legislations, concessions, and policies to support their indigenous shipowners, we have been foot-dragging on this issue of CVFF.
You are asking me if it will benefit the country. The answer is a resounding yes. It is for the good and growth of the industry. It is even for the promotion of indigenous participation in our maritime sector.
It will even create employment. It will ensure that the teeming youth we have — who have studied courses like nautical science, marine engineering, corkswing — and are unemployed can also get to work on board ships owned by Nigerians.
We look forward to a time when Nigerian-owned vessels will be lifting Nigerian crude. Nigerian-owned vessels ought to be given rights of first refusal to lift crude from Nigeria.
We cannot have so much wealth that we play with, and our citizens or our investors — local investors, indigenous investors in the shipping industry — are not part of it.
I don’t know if you get that. So, it’s high time we tried to fast-track the release of that fund. Then, how do they ensure it is not abused or the monies are not squandered? We have gone through this journey before.
There was what we call the Ship Acquisition and Ship Building Fund. I was here when those funds were disbursed. A lot of people who collected the funds could not meet up to pay on time. At some point, some people had to go into litigation with the government.
Later, they talked of alternative dispute resolution and out-of-court settlement. But the bottom line is that the money was gone, and it didn’t achieve the desired objective. Now, there are Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs). I’m not the type that will start criticizing or condemning a child that is not yet born. I want to commend the effort of the minister who is taking this bold initiative to ensure that the funds are released.
The next step is that they want to meet with stakeholders and the PLIs. I think sometime in May this month, they want to have a meeting. I will be part of that meeting too. There will be a robust discussion as to how the disbursement can be successful. I believe with the PLIs—that’s the banks now—all the necessary I’s will be dotted, T’s will be crossed, and the equity funding by those who want to access the funds will also be made.
Possibly too, part of the best practices to ensure that the funds are not abused is that these vessels are procured for them. Identify the vessel, get your own part of the funding, and the vessel is provided—not money paid into the account. So, if vessels are provided for them, I don’t know why or how it will be abused.
That is one. Secondly, if you help somebody to get a ship, and your country is a serious maritime country, it’s not out of place to use the Cabotage regime to ensure that indigenous shipowners who access the funds and get ships are also given preference under our Cabotage law to ensure that they get cargo.
Because it’s like you have a Danfo but no passengers. If we help you buy the Danfo and there are no passengers to carry, and we want you to pay the loan, we’ll just be chasing you for nothing because the Danfo is not working. But when we get the Danfo, we now begin to negotiate passengers for you. That will be a win-win for Nigeria. The people will not only complete paying the money, there will be more money for more shipowners or future shipowners to access. And Nigeria’s place as a strong maritime country will be more reinforced.
Sir, you travel to many ports in Africa. What can we do to deepen intra-African sea trade, and what are the challenges?
I’ll start with the challenges. The challenges have to do with modernization and technology. We have modernization, technology, and infrastructure. Now, you see we are having a running battle with port access roads. It’s high time the federal government declared a state of emergency on all port access roads in Nigeria.
That in 2025, we need to fix—or within the first six months of 2025—all port access roads in Nigeria. They must be fixed. That is an emergency. I’m saying this because Nigeria is an import-dependent economy. The ports play critical roles in our national life. Why will the road to the port be spaces you struggle through every day? Movement should be seamless.
It’s very important. Then, if you look at the state of the port—talking about infrastructure too—they have been decaying. Some of the ports were built over 40 years ago and are due for rehabilitation.
Some aspects require outright reconstruction. And I’m very happy the MD of NPA is paying attention to this. It’s very important that that is done. When you make your ports work better, it will further strengthen your position as a number one player in West and Central Africa. It’s not enough to say you are the largest. You control the highest cargo throughput.
You control the highest cargo throughput, and Togo has a more modern port than you. What’s the population of Togo? What’s their consuming strength? They have a port with RTGs. They have a port with the best cranes. So, why shouldn’t we have it?
We need to do our part as a country to ensure that anybody coming to invest in the Nigerian port system, whether as a terminal operator, should get the best state-of-the-art equipment to work in our ports.
Technology—we have not done enough with technology. In our last Port Industry Town Hall meeting, you saw us discuss the Port Community System, which is integration of all players in the port sector. And this is something that we ought to have done yesterday.
As we speak, we are already running behind the deadline given by the IMO for all member states to have PCS. So, it’s something that Nigeria should brace up to and act very fast.
Why we must do this is—sometimes our slowness in achieving this gives rise to smuggling. People who want to import things to Nigeria will use neighboring ports, even for things we don’t prohibit. They bring it to Benin Republic and either ship it through the border or smuggle it into the country.
What does that imply for us? The money that we are supposed to make from the services of loading it into our port is being made in Benin Republic. It will be loaded there, it will be offloaded there, and brought into the country. Now, the dockworker there has made money from what the Nigerians want to consume, while the dockworker in Nigeria is being laid off. Dockworker is being employed.
I’m giving you a layman analogy for you to understand the impact. A vessel that is supposed to come to Nigeria goes to Benin Republic or goes to Togo. The labour component for that vessel is generated and exhausted there.
What we just see is that the goods are already inside Alaba Market, inside Oshodi Market, and we go and buy. The wealth in the value chain of that goods landing at the port—where AMATO and other truck owners should have moved it from the port into the market—has been lost to a neighboring country.
It is the truck owner of Benin that will benefit. It is the dockworker of Benin that will benefit. All we do is just buy it and consume it when it has been smuggled into our market.
So, if we don’t modernize our port, importers will still continue to see those places—those neighboring countries—as attractive.
That is one. Another thing we need to do is tariff. The Nigerian port must not be made too expensive.
Economy of scale—if the turnover is high, and the trade is high, the volume is high, you will not run at a loss. Government should review its tariffs in such a way that we are competitive and we make smuggling less attractive.
If smuggling is less attractive, the Customs will concentrate more on protocol duties—on import and export—and do less of chasing smugglers in the bush. So those are the things I think we have to do to get that sector fixed.
Is there any cooperation among the key agencies in the maritime sector? If not, why? And if yes, why hasn’t it enhanced cargo clearance?
There is cooperation, but is it up to what will enhance cargo clearance? The answer is no. You see various government agencies meet and take pictures showing that they are collaborating. But we are not seeing the dividends that much.
I will give you examples. Sometimes it’s cargo that has been exited from the port being delayed again by port police.
Whereas, within the port ecosystem, there is supposed to be what you call joint examination, where everybody should see and pass the cargo. That brings us again to the issue of the Port Community System.
If there is an electronic interface, the cooperation will be electronically strengthened. Where you and I—as NPA—we are seeing what Plant Quarantine is doing. If Port Health wants anything done or stopped, or wants any consignment stopped, through the PCS they will see it.
It’s a Port Community System. And once that is said, everybody sees it. It’s effected.
It’s not that when the cargo exits the port, the Standards Organization will go and lay it at Mile 2. Port police will be waiting for it again in a corner to ambush it.
Where is the cooperation? Meanwhile, everybody we are talking about here is working for the same federal government. So, there are discordant tones.
All government agencies should harmonize their operation, should take advantage of joint cargo examination, and should work towards helping to ensure that the Port Community System comes to reality on time.
I am happy that the MD of NPA is talking about the Port Community System. We need it like yesterday. And the earlier we have it, the better for us to have a coordinated port system.