Adegboyega Oyetola, minister of marine and blue economy, has presented a N10.9 billion, 2024 budget for his Ministry to the joint House Committees of the Senate on Marine Transport and the House of Representatives Committees on Ports and Harbour, Maritime Safety, Education and Administration, Inland Waterways and Shipping services.
The minister said the proposed budget is to enable the newly created Ministry to perform its oversight role and monitor the implementation of government policies across agencies under its purview in the marine and blue economy domain.
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“You are aware that the 2024 budget is for economic growth, therefore, the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and its Agencies under the 2024 budget seek to consider and sustain on the achievements and performances recorded in the past years,” Oyetola said.
The Minister further said that the Ministry will place primacy on ports’ infrastructural development by modernising the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports that are dilapidated and have almost reached end of life span, and also plans to rehabilitate the Eastern ports, dredge the inland and coastal waterways.
To realise these initiatives, Oyetola solicited the Committees to appropriate needed funds as proposed in the budget of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the National Inland Waterways to facilitate the projects.
On the need for port rehabilitation, the Minister said the Federal Government still retains ownership of these ports and so as landlords, it must ensure that the ports are well maintained and kept in optimal state to enable usage and interest from the concessionaires as stipulated by the 2006 Act that enabled port concession.
Other focal areas, the Minister pointed out, would include maritime administration, and building human capacity while also harping on effective technical and economic regulation to ensure the strengthening of the Blue Economy in Nigeria.
Presenting the Ministry’s budget accompanied with those of the Agencies supervised by the Ministry namely Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron and Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Oyetola informed the committee that the NPA, NIMASA, and NSC are fully self-funding and also make reasonable remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF/TSA).
The MAN, Oron, NIWA, and the CRFFN derive their funding from the Federal Government’s budget and internally generated revenue.
He also made note of the CRFFN’s appropriation for 2023 which was erroneously removed and requested for the matter to be revisited.
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Earlier, Wasiu Sanni, spokesperson for the joint House Committees and the Senate, said that the 2024 budget defence also encompasses performance review for 2023 which would provide adequate and further insight into propositions captured in the 2024 budget proposal.
He assured the Ministry of the Committees’ commitment and support towards ensuring that the maritime sector performs optimally, as doing this will translate to boosting remittances to the federation account and the overall gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.
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