By Providence Adeyinka

The Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, CIOTA is set to hold its 2021 edition of the National Transport Summit, NTS expected to be chaired by Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

The event which is scheduled to hold between the 6th and 8th of December 2021 in Abuja, will see the Vice President declare the event open. The Ministers of Transportation, Aviation, and that of State for Transportation as well as heads of government’s parastatals, agencies, captains of industries, and their management staff are also expected to grace the occasion.

Speaking at a press conference and inauguration of the Planning Committee for the Summit in Lagos, Registrar of CIOTA, Rasheed Aiyelabegan said the theme of this year’s summit is “Regulating the Transport Sector in Nigeria: The State of the Art and the Years Ahead”

To this end, the institute has inaugurated the foremost maritime lawyer, Barrister Emmanuel Osuala Nwagbara as Chairman of the planning committee.

Others are; Chinda Oguchi as Co-Chairman, Chizoba Anyika as a member, Nancy Olua, Patrick Ehinore, Maikano Abdullahi, Chioma Azeonu, Adamu Bala, T. Aluma, C.C Akujobi, Ezinne Azunna, and Rasheed Aiyelabegan as the Secretary.

Aiyelabegan said this year’s summit aims to examine the current state of the practice in economic, technical, and safety regulation in the nation’s transport sector involving all modes.

In his words, “In achieving this, the summit will interrogate the scope and implication of ongoing reforms in the transport sector by bringing together critical stakeholders, experts, and policymakers to share global best practices in the field of technical and economic regulations”

“At the end of the event, the summit will proffer different recommendations on how the country can use economic and technical regulations as veritable tools for sustainable transport development”

Also speaking at the press conference yesterday, the Chairman of the planning committee, Barrister Osuala Nwagbara said the 1st and 2nd edition of the summit has recorded tremendous success and impacted in policy formulation in the transport sector.

According to him, it was the recommendation of the institute that led to the rejuvenation of barging operations as a mode of cargo evacuation from the Nigerian Ports, as well as the many innovative developments in the rail system.

In the 2021 summit, Barr Nwagbara assured that attention would be focused on rejuvenating pipeline transportation for oil and gas products in Nigeria.

He also stated that in terms of regulation of the various mode of transportation, there has been a lacuna, and this is why the sub-themes of the event focus on technical and safety regulation in all modes of transportation.

“Since our last summit, from the end of last year to the present, barging operations have been brought to the fore because through advocacy of CIOTA, we have identified that there is a need to adopt other roads in evacuating cargoes from the port.

“We have been able to show that rail transport is not only affordable but that Nigerians can have the infrastructure and provide affordable cheap services from one point to another“We are also bringing to the fore, pipeline transportation, since our advocacy in this area, a lot of businesses are happening in the pipeline sector, while abandoned pipelines are being rejuvenated for movement of petroleum products” Nwagbara stated.Below are some members of the organising committee