• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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AAMA keen on building competitive African maritime sector – Peterside

Dakuku Peterside

Dakuku Peterside, chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA), has urged maritime administrations in Africa to put efforts together towards competing favourably with its counterparts in other continents.

According to him, building of a competitive maritime sector in Africa can only be achieved through continuous engagements and sharing of ideas among member states.

“Our primary aim is to uphold the tenets of the African Maritime Transport Charter (AMTC), to improve the capacity, capability and performance of Africa’s Maritime Administrations and the maritime/shipping sector with great emphasis on human resources development, technology and information sharing,” said Peterside during the 3rd session of the Executive Council (EXCO) of the Association held recently in Casablanca, Morocco.

He said the choice of the various countries in the EXCO was to ensure geographical spread and regional representation.

Peterside, who doubles as the director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), enjoined the participants to make valuable contributions to the course of promoting the African maritime administration, as this will help to achieve set goals for the body in African.

“We will not relent in our efforts to building competitive and vibrant maritime and shipping sector, and to give Africa a voice among comity of maritime nations”, he said.

Peterside expressed optimism that the meeting will yield results and profound way forward to actualising the African Maritime Transport Charter (AMTC).

The AAMA Executive Council is made up of representatives of Central Africa (Cameroun, Cape Verde); West Africa (Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana); East Africa (Tanzania and Comoros); Southern Africa (Mozambique and South Africa); North Africa (Egypt and Sudan) and Uganda representing land-locked countries.

Recall that in 2017, Dakuku Peterside was elected as the chairman of AAMA during the 3rd conference of the body held in Nigeria and in 2018, he was reelected during the 4th AAMA Conference in Egypt.

The 3rd Session of EXCO will focus on several issues that will continue to drive AAMA’s vision, ambition and strategy for the sustainable development of Africa’s Maritime Domain.

The meeting had in attendance members from Cape Verde, Ghana, Tanzania, Comoros, Mozambique, South Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Nigeria.

 

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE