By Godfrey Bivbere & Bartholomew Madukwe

LAGOS—THE Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said Nigeria’s maritime sector is capable of taking over from oil sector as the country’s highest revenue earner.

This is even as the NIMASA boss disclosed that the agency is to undergo structural, cultural and performance reforms as well as put in place a three year developmental plan from 2016 to 2019 to ensure that the maritime industry contributes positively to the economy.

Peterside, who led a delegation to a meeting with the United States (US) Commercial Service, West Gulf Maritime Association and the Texas Southern University (TSU), Houston, Texas, US, Peterside, highlighted the potentials of the Nigerian market, including the vastness of her coastline and huge population.

Calling for greater collaboration with Nigeria’s international partners to grow skilled indigenous manpower to develop the Nigerian maritime industry, Peterside noted that NIMASA will need the expertise of the Texas Southern University in shore-based technical training of maritime sector personnel to improve on its capacity to regulate maritime activities in Nigeria and stimulate the necessary growth the sector requires.

On the planned restructuring of the agency, the NIMASA boss who disclosed this in Lagos at a stakeholders meeting with the theme “Repositioning the Maritime Sector for Greater Impact,” said that the agency will collate the inputs from stakeholders to form its planned three years developmental programme termed “Medium Term Maritime Growth Strategy”.

He said that NIMASA is on a mission of self-recovery towards the actualization of its core mandate for the benefit of the nation’s maritime sector and the country as a whole.

Peterside called on stakeholders to collaborate with the Agency in order to return the maritime industry to its pride of place in the Nigerian economy.