Prof. Charles Asenime, Dean, School of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University, has urged African countries to utilise waterways to gain the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) potential.
Asenime made the appeal on Monday at an online conversation on the topic, “Taking Advantage of the Blue Economy: Why African’s Inland Waterways must Work” organised by Maritime TV Africa.
He noted that God had given the continent natural highways which are water, adding that the highway needed to be enhanced to boost the continent’s economy.
“If we are going to use the road for AfCFTA, we must construct it to link other countries but water does not have boundaries, it simply flows into the other.
“River Niger covers five countries and this has ensured the ability to trade on a platter of gold. We accept there are challenges as regards depth but there is also a channel that can be used.
“All that needs to be done is to make the channel navigable throughout the year for easy movement,” he said.
The don noted that all that was needed to utilise AfCFTA through the waterways was to be well focused and de-emphasising the use of road.
Asenime emphasized that Africa had the potential to utilise inland transportation but unfortunately not much preference was put in the sector to reap the benefits that abound.
He also added that the inland waterway had benefits such as fishing, tourism, movement of goods through barges, movement of agricultural goods, petroleum products and passengers movement from one spot to another.
He said that out of the 36 states, 28 states were linked through inland transportation, adding that this would ensure that the AfCFTA was harnessed in those areas.
“Nigeria has one of the largest inland waterway, about 10,000 km but we have not been able to utilise one quarter of it yet.
“Now we are trying to take away attention from fossil fuel, we have also explored the land, let us explore the ocean, the inland waterways to tap its benefits on AfCFTA”, he said.
On the issue of research-driven development to enhance the waterways, Asenime noted that the country had the National Inland Waterways Authority, School of Oceanography, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron and others, to look into this.
He added that unfortunately, laxity, unwillingness to venture into new research had made the country not to gain in the enormous potential on the inland waterways.(NAN)
