‘Urgent need for Africa to control its tonnage’

Africa is a development opportunity not to be missed – which is why the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) is making a case for African Indigenous Shipping Tonnage on the back of Africa’s transportation and industrial support requirements. According to Sobantu Tilayi, chief operations officer of Samsa, there’s an urgent need for Africa to control its tonnage. “We have seen a boom in offshore oil and gas activity along the African coast while there is large-scale investment in onshore energy and other large infrastructure projects,” he said. “The Atlantic Ocean activities alone represent over $150 billion of investment with maintenance, operations and modifications, while the Indian Ocean gas finds and explorations are also in the billions of dollars.” With Africa’s growth expected to rebound to 4.5% in 2012 and to 4.8% in 2013, now more than ever coastal shipping can be used to support African infrastructure development while at the same time growing the African maritime industry. “The big question we as South Africans need to ask at present is how can we leverage off the massive opportunities in the breakbulk and project cargo fields – especially in terms of the oil and gas market,” said Tilayi. “South Africa as a region is probably in the best position to provide the massive amount of support this market is going to require in terms of infrastructure or goods.” With Africa requiring an infrastructure investment of at least 7% of its total GDP to address the backlogs, the maritime connectivity of African countries continues to be largely determined by the amount of mineral resources each country possesses. “That is not a sustainable model,” he said. “We cannot continue with boom-driven economies making short-term decisions. It is possible to design a better-connected Africa with better transportation systems using coastal shipping as a key element. Development of the maritime transport infrastructure therefore becomes a key enabler and catalyst for the competitiveness and development of the continent’s economy.” He said developing a maritime agenda for Africa was therefore high on the Samsa priority list. CAPTION Sobantu Tilayi ... ‘It is possible to design a better-connected Africa using coastal shipping as a key.’