The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (Nimasa) has called on foreign investors to support Africa’s maritime sector.
“But investments should be mutually beneficial to both parties – and Africa should not be short-changed,” Nimasa director general, Dakuku Peterside said on the sidelines of the recently concluded Shipbuilding, Machinery Technology conference in Hamburg, Germany.
He advised foreign investors to propose symbiotic terms which would lead to sincere trade among all participants and used China as an example of this as they had a “better understanding of the African market”.
Peterside pointed out that China offered favourable terms of engagement in terms of cost financing of a project, the duration for payment of facilities, and ease of transfer of technology. He said that Europe needed to come to the party with genuine interest and financing opportunities for the sector in order to compete with the Asian giant.
“Europe may offer better technology, Europe may even offer better managerial capability, but what of the issue of financing,” he said. “It is up to Europe to realise that the market of the future is in Africa and offer mutually beneficial terms, not terms that benefit Europe only to the detriment of Africa.”
Peterside added that Nigeria’s maritime sector was open to investments as government had put policies in place that would be beneficial to interested investors.
