Maritime
THE Federal government on Thursday sought partnership with Ukraine to develop Nigeria’s inland waterways. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, said this at the Nigeria-Ukraine Trade and Investment roundtable in Abuja.
Mustapha also decried the decrease in trade volume between the two countries by four per cent.
He said that if Nigeria would develop its economy it must develop its inland waterways to reduce traffic on the roads.
The SGF said that Ukraine had made a mark in the development of waterways in Europe.
“This is an area I think we can fashion a partnership and help us in the development of our inland waterways.
“Nigeria has 10,000 kilometers of inland watersways, out of this about 4,000 are navigable.
“I believe for our economy to grow we must begin to work assiduously to develop our inland water ports so that we can take off the volume of traffic pressure from our roads,” he said.
According to him, this is to allow the roads have a sustainable period for a couple of years.
“The truth is that the weight load we put on our roads today will not allow our roads to be available for a couple of years to come except we invest heavily in terms of maintenance.
“So, if we can fully develop our inland waterways I believe that much of the cargo can go on inland waterways as it is being done in Ukraine,” he said.
He lauded the existing relations between the two countries which he said had helped in area of fighting insurgency in Nigeria.
The SGF noted that Nigeria procured military hardware for fighting terrorism from Ukraine.
On trade volume, Mustapha called on the two countries to put in place measures to increase it.
According to him, the trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine was 93.3 million dollars as at November 2017, which is four per cent decrease in the 2016 figures.
He expressed hope that with the visit of the Ukrainian delegation, the trade volume between the two countries would increase.
“The visit came at a time Nigeria is pursuing economic growth that will aid its vision of being among top 20 economies in the world.
“It is gratifying to mention that as at November 2017, trade volume between Nigeria and Ukraine was 93.2 million dollars which was however a decrease by 4.6 per cent over the same period in 2016.
“It is my expectation that with your visit we hope the volume of trade may likely doubke in 2018,” he said.
The Trade Representative of Ukraine, Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, Ms Natalia Mykolska, noted that Nigeria was a long standing friend of Ukraine, saying Nigerian students in Ukraine are the best ambassadors for both countries.
She said that Nigeria was a destination market for Ukraine export, stressing that there was need to talk about import and export to develop the two countries economy.
“Nigeria is a strategic partner, we believe trade is not a one way street, we need to think of import, export and joint cooperation.
“More than 10 Ukraine companies that represent different sectors of the economy are on this delegation – agriculture and food sector, grains and food cooperation, machine building factory, breaks and blots use in automotive sector, pharmaceutical sector, poultry,” she said.
While expressing delight on the forum, she expressed optimism that the meeting would bring a lot of achievement for the prosperity of both countries.
Nigeria office of trade negotiations, Chief Trade Negotiator Director General, Amb. Chinedu Osakwe, also corroborated SGF claim, saying there is huge imbalance of trade between the two countries.
Osakwe however said that the visit presented opportunity to balance the trade volume and cooperate in a way that will mutually benefit both countries.
He said the global financial crisis of 2008 affected Nigeria and in 2014, the oil price crisis affected Nigeria also.
“Ukraine is a good friend of Nigeria but with huge balance of trade if you look at the figure between 2015, 2016 and 2017 import value of Ukraine approximately is 91 billion dollars contrast to about 90 million dollars export to Ukraine.
“It is is now our responsibility not to repeat the exercise; the point is that we will now focus on the relationship to begin engagement on the rebalance and cooperate in the mutually benefited with Ukraine,” he said.
Osakwe while stressing in the areas of possible collaboration between the two countries, said what the countries could do together was diversification, through building of value chains.
According to him, the priority areas include maritime services – the development of our water ways.
“It is an area that we will need to identify to work together.
“Also in agriculture, robotics, genetics, energy, mining and manufacturing; these are the areas we would like to focus on.
“The watch Word is value chain, as the number one economy in Africa this very important,” he said. (NAN)
– Apr. 5, 2018 @ 17:48 GMT
AE
Tags: Inland waterways: FG seeks partnership with Ukraine
