By: Mike Danladi, Bauchi
It has been observed that looking into the key areas of the Nigerian economy as critical to understanding the ocean governance frameworks in addressing the sustainable development narratives.
The assertion was made by the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola who pointed out that according to a report by McKinsey Global Institute (MG) (2014), beyond the increasing momentum of the past year’s growth at more than 8%, Nigeria is set to leading Africa economies and becoming a top-20 economy by 2030.
Dr. Dayo Mobereola spoke in a presentation titled: ‘Harnessing the Blue Economy potentials for Entrepreneurial Development: A Panacea for Youths Restiveness’ at the ongoing 15th North-East Joint International Trade Trade Fair at the IBB Square, Bauchi on Sunday represented by the NIMASA Team Lead at the Tradefair, Engr. Francis Odukoye, (PhD), Deputy Director, Shipping Promotion.
He said that from the drivers of this performance and potentials for the country are the increase in global oil demands amid growing population, digitization, educated and productive youths, and strategic geographical niche in West Africa.
The DG added that there are five major sectors in Nigeria with potentials to driving this transformative change in the coming decades namely: Trade Agriculture (Including fisheries and Aquaculture), Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Oil-and-Gas.
He stressed that Trade is projected to more than triple with an annual increase of about 8% accounting for up to $1.4 trillion in 2030.
According to him, Agriculture, already the largest sector of the Nigerian economy with 22% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has potential to more than double with projected value of about 5263 billion by 2030 from $112 billion in 2013, Infrastructure, while being just 39% of the GDP, the potential for investment and capital inflows could reach $1 5 trillion by 2030.
Manufacturing, while performance is currently low, with innovation and increasing productivity, the potential outputs from manufacturing could reach $144 billion by 2030.
He stressed that Oil-and-Gas, still very crucial to the Nigeria economy, the production capacity could increase to a new high of 3.13 million barrels per day from an average of about 2.35 million.
According to him, “Although, these projected trends were threatened by slow growth and depression due to fall in the global oil prices in 2016 which consequently affected performance of many other sectors in the country.”
He also said that, “With the recovery of the economy from the third quarter of 2017 at 1.4%, the economy is back on track. The catalyst for this recovery could as well be traced to the increase in the global oil price as reflected in the performance of the country’s oil-and-gas industry with growth of 38%.”
“Similarly, the volume of trade and the manufacturing sectors have recorded growth of 40.2% and 74.5% from the first quarters of 2017,” he added.
He explained that the blue economy and sustainable development concept gained traction following the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012.
It shares the same ambitious goals derived from The Green economy’ concepts, that is, the improvement of well-being and social equity, and drastically reducing environmental and ecological imbalance
The blue economy embodies an array of maritime activities that offer a tapestry of business prospects awaiting exploration which resources beckon opportunities in fishing, coastal tourism, iverine mining, water transportation, and beyond.
The NIMASA DG added that, “As we gather today, it is incumbent upon us to recognize the imperative of identifying and seizing these opportunities presented within the region.”
The key drivers and future trend of blue economy he said, broadly, the core activities the Blue Economy concepts seek to address critical areas which are divided into four main categories as follows: Harvesting of living resources, Extraction of non-living resources, Commerce, tourism and trade and non-market / indirect contributions to the economic activities and environment.
To each of these four categories, there are key economic sectors and industries providing unique ocean services. Essentially, all these sectors combined are critical to the broad components of Blue Economy with potentials for more impactful contributions in the future
He also said that the key drivers and sector of the Blue economy is driven by many important factors and facilitated through various sectors. Some of the most important drivers and critical sectors are hereunder briefly discussed
Harvesting of living resources: the essential ocean services provided through this activity is the provision of seafood with the critical sectors relevant to this being the fisheries and aquaculture industry, and the provision of marine biotechnology with the active industry being the pharmaceutical chemical industry
Extraction of non-living resources this activity involves four major sectors namely, mineral sand and gravel for sea bed mining, the energy sector for fossil fuel oil and gas exploration, the energy sector for renewables and clean technologies, and freshwater for the desalination and purification of water resources.
Commerce tourism and trade essentially, the ocean services relevant involve tourism and recreation with the key sectors being tourism and coastal development, and transport and trade with the active sectors being shipping and port infrastructure and services.
Indirect contribution to economic activities and environment this involves the non-market-based ocean services and the relevant sectors are carbon sequestration through blue carbon, ecosystem habitat protection and restoration, waste disposal for land-based industry through assimilation of land-based effluents and the existence of blodiversity through protection of species habitat.
