By Uzor Odigbo
Sequel to its promise to support the national vision for continuous improvement in maritime operations, the management of Maritime Nigeria, is harvesting renowned maritime egg-heads under the umbrella of Distinguished Maritime Personalities, (DMPs) to dissect issues at its 2nd National Discourse for the year 2023.
The theme for this year’s National Discourse is “New Ship, New Ports, what Infrastructure, Skill Sets and Tools?”
According to the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Maritime Nigeria, Mr. Kelvin Kagbare, the Nigerian maritime domain is not only expanding but developing bigger and deeper ports across the nation.
He says “With the successful takeoff of the Lekki Deep Seaport and proposed lbom, Badagry, Gelegele, Agge and similar facilities, the issues of complementary and operability dynamics also sets in; hence the need to be abreast of developments.
“As the ports and ships get bigger, become more sophisticated and technology driven, we have a duty to hear and learn from those whose business it is to know, what our actual competitive margins are and where we are real time”.
“We are confident that our DPMs forum will also give us a broadbased outlook in area of support structure and superstructure, tools and skills, policy stability and it’s interplay with global trade”, Kagbare said.
The Maritime Nigeria Chief Executive Officer assured that the 2023 DMP edition promises to be huge and better, having regards to the depth of
consultations.
He explained that the DMPs were carefully selected based on their track records, involvements and contributions to maritime businesses and development in the country.
The Chairman of the Planning Committee, Mr. Shepherds Okiemute disclosed that preparations for the 2nd edition began last year at Rockview, immediately after the end of the maiden edition.
“We met and reviewed how it went and began working on the 2nd edition which is schedule for Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at the same venue as discussions with DMPs and other stakeholders in the maritime and oil and gas stakeholders continue”.
“We are elated by the responses so far, some well meaning stakeholders who have contacted us on the modalities and the spread, have been quite encouraging”, Okiemute said.
Chairman Publicity, Mr. Kenneth Jukpo, Publisher of the DietNewsDigest also expressed enthusiasm on this year’s gathering.
“It is the 2nd in the series and from what we had last year, l am optimistic that this year’s National Discourse will be bigger and better.”
Jukpor disclosed that this year’s National Discourse has been planned to run in four stages vis-à-vis Recognitions, Presentations, Disscusions and Summation.
“We recognize the busy schedules of our DMPs and other invited guests. We plan to prioritize time and the discussions,” he said