70% global trade done through maritime – FG

The Federal Government has said that the maritime sector is responsible for the transportation of about 70 per cent of globally traded goods.

It also said that the sector was a major contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, while speaking at the 2022 World Maritime Day in Lagos on Thursday, urged Nigeria to take advantage of the declaration by the International Maritime Organisation to explore more partnerships.

He said the country should demand an inclusive and fair distribution of global resources and deployment of relevant technology to aid decarbonisation and control of marine plastic litter and befouling.

“No nation can afford to ignore a sector that employs millions of people globally, which is responsible for the transportation of at least 70 per cent of globally traded goods and is a major contributor to the GDP. It is therefore imperative that developing countries like Nigeria should take advantage of this declaration by the IMO to explore more partnerships, demand an inclusive and fair distribution of global resources and deployment of relevant technology to aid decarbonization, and control of marine plastic litter and befouling.”

Sambo also said that the need for new technology to drive the maritime sector had become imperative.

“The need for new technology to drive the maritime sector has not only become necessary but imperative. The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic which virtually shut down the global economy is indeed a wake-up call for the maritime community to adopt strategies, technologies and innovations that will surmount future challenges of similar magnitude. The choice of this theme by IMO therefore could not have come at a better time because life without an optimally functional Maritime domain, even for a short space of time, would be disastrous in the socio-economic and security dimensions of human existence.”