- President of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa/Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho (right), and the association’s Secretary-General, Koffi Jean-Marie, at their ongoing board of directors meeting in Luanda, Angola… on Monday
By Anthony Nwachukwu
President of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, has stressed the urgent need for African countries to translate their marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of their respective countries.
Dantsoho, who is also the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), said on Monday at the PMAWCA Board of Directors and Ports Statisticians Network meetings in Luanda, Angola, that the sustainability of African countries rests heavily on the sustainability of their seaports.
He noted that apart from being linked by water, West and Central African nations are linked by challenges and opportunities. Therefore, “the need to translate our marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of our respective countries has never been more pressing than it is now,” he stated.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that the demonstrated global leadership of ports in the contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) shows that the sustainability of the world, especially Africa, rests heavily on the sustainability of our ports.”
“Apart from being linked by water, countries in West and Central Africa are linked by challenges and opportunities and, with the increasing realisation of the leverage that economic cooperation confers in the international arena, we will be doing great disservice to ourselves if we fail to maximise this unity through intensified collaboration of our ports.”
Dantsoho further emphasised the imperative of data in decision making in port management, noting that the meeting with the Statisticians Network “presents a smart model for regional synergy and partnership, which this administration intends to champion, especially given that data remain the major driver of effective decision making in port management.”
Commending President Bola Tinubu for creating the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, Dantsoho said this has made the implementation of audacious plans for the sector easier. According to him, this “has re-energised our resolve to invest more in sector-specific talent development in order to harness more ideas from operational think tanks, such as the PMAWCA.”
He further stated that Statisticians Network offers the capacity to expanded training opportunities across member-ports.
He emphasized that “the modernisation of ports and full automation of processes through the Port Community System and its corollary, the National Single Window, which is gaining momentum, must be accompanied by strengthened economic cohesion among PMAWCA members,” even as he assured Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to achieving this as soon as possible.
“The specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which includes the progressive elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, liberalisation of trade in services and cooperation, among others, is pregnant with a lot of opportunities for wealth creation and prosperity.”
Dantsoho expressed conviction that the partnership and holding of hands under the umbrella PMAWCA will equip member-states to safely midwife the specific objectives of AfCFTA for the benefit of respective national economies with domino effect on the economy of the sub-region.
Meanwhile, he disclosed that the PMAWCA Board of Director will review the outcomes of 2024 activities, examining its recommendations and budgets, as well as deliberating on the association’s strategic direction.
