Nigerian’s Indigenous Ship Owners Association has kicked against revamping the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX), saying that the industry has nothing to showcase or exhibit to the world.
The ship owners group led by Captain Dada Olaniyi Labinjo maintained that the federal government should focus on how to develop the maritime sector through policies that can revive indigenous participation in shipping and not to support or promote meaningless projects without positive impact.
NIMAREX is an exhibition and conference platform where ship owners, ship managers, marine spare dealers, ship brokers and other stakeholders come together to promote innovation and ideas of the industry.
The annual maritime expo was conceived in 2011 by the indigenous shipowners to showcase Nigeria’s enormous maritime potentials to international investors.
The group also described NIMAERX as a jamboree which has not yielded any positive results or contributed to shipping development in Nigeria.
Recall that a group of Nigerian Shipowners recently, hinted that plans are afoot to revive the moribund Conference and Exhibition platform, four years after it was halted.
But according to the Lagos Coordinator, NISA, Captain Franklin Taiwo Akinpelumi in a chat insisted that government should not encourage, support or promote any event that cannot add value to the nation’s shipping sector.
Akinpelumi who also doubles as the Chief Executive Officers, Oceanic Energy Nigeria Limited noted that “Its unfortunate that without ship building, NIMAREX is suppose to be relevant only when we get to the developmental stage of the sector where ship can be built in Nigeria, cadets can be engage locally through Seatime experience, human and capital development must be harnessed and the cabotage act must be implemented effectively.
“With all these factors in place then we can invite the outside world to showcase our maritime potentials.
“But the truth is that we don’t have such in place and why should we celebrate failure under the name NIMAREX which is more of a funfare.
The Lagos Coordinator lamented that the exhibition held in the past harped on theoretical aspect but added that nothing positive came out of it to influence government decision in revamping the sector.
“The marine industry is a sinking ship where the mast is still afloat. The industry is in shamble”,he added.
