2023 Economic Summit: Collaboration, not competition, key to maritime economy’s growth – Kosoko

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Princess Ronke Kosoko, the Chief Executive Officer, Maritime Innovations Hub & Thematic Lead, Ports and Inland Waterways, Infrastructure Policy Commission, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said the inability of the Nigerian maritime sector to achieve desired goal is hinged on failure of stakeholders to work in collaboratively.

The industry seems all men for themselves, the industry she said has been about competition not about collaboration which must be corrected to achieve results.

Kosoko made the admonishment at a maritime interactive session held at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit by Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja on Monday.

In her contribution during the Maritime session at the event on the theme: Sailing to Success: Harnessing Nigeria’s Maritime Potential, she highlighted the challenges not limited to collaboration but to infrastructure and others.

Given the belief that maritime is the untapped mainstay of the nation’s economy, she called for support to the present administration and attention of participants to the rigours the sector had undergone and still needs to undergo.
She expressed concern on how the sector had suffered neglect in terms of bad roads, road congestion, among other ills.
Insisting that for the maritime industry to get a respite and harness the potentials to be able to contribute substantially to the present adminstration’s $1 trillion economic projections, all private and public sector participants must bear the burden collaboratively not to leave it for the minister or president alone.
Princess Kosoko also pointed out that the problem of the sector has been that stakeholders have been working in competition and not in collaboration hence, the inability for the industry to achieve the targeted goal.

She however admonished participants at the dinner to help bear the burden of revamping the sector rather than leaving it to the president or minister alone.

“When you see Africa and you see Nigeria, you will see opportunities and at the same time, responsibilities. It is a burden on everybody that we must bear because money has to be raised because the presidency says it wants to raise in trillion dollars economy basically saying he wants to double whatever the economy is right now.

“The burden is not on the president or minister alone it is on every stakeholder because global capital has to be raised to stimulate the target economic growth

“The industry has been about competition but not about collaboration and we are here to correct that.

“In my 13 years of maritime experience, everybody wants to do things on their own, become cabals in their own space and they frustrate certain government reforms and maritime cannot get to the destination because each organisation is not linking the other.

“As for me, I believe that the secret of all possibility is speaking with one voice, begin to do whatever we have agreed to do in this place, act with one purpose. That is the secret of achieving the renewed hope agenda.”

Earlier in his speech, Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, said he intends to run the sector with private investors and public/private partnership to rehabilitate the ports and make sure all scanners function optimally.

The forum was organised to seek solutions to the challenges hampering the growth and desired development of the maritime sector.