- Vice President for Africa, International Association for Ports and Harbour (IAPH), Abubakar Dantsoho (middle), IAPH President, Jens Meier (right), Vice-President for North America, Eugene Seroka, Vice President for Central and South America, Vinicius Patel, Vice President for Asia, South/West, East and Middle East, Ichio Motono (left), Vice President for Asia, South East and Oceania, Marika Calfas, and Vice-President for Europe, Jacques Vandermeiren, during the just concluded World Ports Conference in Kobe City, Japan
By Anthony Nwachukwu
Vice President (Africa) of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, has listed his key priorities for port development across the continent to include effective policy implementation, enhanced collaboration, strengthened cooperation, and improved trade facilitation within Africa’s port sector.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) spoke after his inauguration at the just concluded World Ports Conference in Kobe City, Japan, where he was inaugurated as the IAPH Vice President for Africa.
Though African ports play a critical role in global trade, they face infrastructure deficit, policy inconsistency and limited technological adoption, among other challenges.
However, speaking on the theme, “Reinvention and Prosperity in Turbulent Times”, Dantsoho stated that central to his leadership agenda at the IAPH would be a unified action among African port authorities and stakeholders to address challenges facing African ports.
He disclosed that his administration, through the deployment of port innovativeness, will capture tangible, sustainable investment returns in high-risk environments.
According to him, “this responsibility has fired up my resolve more than ever to be the vanguard for galvanising national and regional policy action steps geared towards institutionalising ports’ eco-friendliness, in line with the dictates of IAPH’s World Ports Sustainability Programme.
He added that “reinvention and prosperity in turbulent times through the deployment of port innovativeness to capture tangible, sustainable investment returns in high-risk environments is a global exigency that the world can most efficiently surmount if IAPH members speak with one voice through renewed collaboration and cooperation.”
Dantsoho further assured that he would champion full automation of African ports to eliminate trade barriers, revealing his intention to deploy his current role as president of the Pan-African Association for Port Cooperation (PAPC) “to more intentionally promote collaboration and cooperation.
“Cognisant of the catalytic role of automation as the linchpin of ports’ efficiency and sustainability, I intend to infuse greater action behind the necessity of full automation of African ports as the most veritable tool for elimination of barriers to trade.”
