By Steve Agbota
The Spokesman of Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN), Udeze Ernest Okechukwu, has said the association will develop an automated application to enhance barge operations in the maritime industry.
Okechukwu stated this while speaking with newsmen at a special fund raising party organised by BOAN to support his campaign as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Ideato North State Constituency in Imo State Assembly election come 2023, said that the automated app would promote flawless and seamless barging operations and data management in the industry.
According to him, with the automated barge App, Nigeria would have accurate data of both import and export cargoes that come in and go out of the country on daily basis even as he said it would help in the advancement of Nigerian Maritime industry.
“My desire is to see a model maritime industry with organised and exemplary modus operandi. When l joined BOAN, the narrative changed, I tried to create automated barge application to enhance the system, changing the narrative was simply to implement that and we are still working on it.
“I am assuring that my dream of automating barge operations in Nigeria is a reality. When that takes place, it is going to form the data bank of the maritime industry. We need to be able to account for the number of export that leaves the country and the kind of product leaving our shoreline.
“We need to have detailed account of what is leaving our shores, the number of empty boxes, the quantity of import that moved by barge and other means. I want Nigeria to have data of importation so that in no distant time, we will be able to forecast what will happen in the industry in the next ten, twenty to fifty years,” he added.
However, the prospective lawmaker bemoaned the non-implementation of the Cabotage law, which Nigeria is a signatory to, the lacuna has created a loophole that have allowed foreigners to take over barging operations in Nigeria.
“The Cabotage Law is not domesticated here in Nigeria and foreign investors are coming into barge operations whereby our local practitioners are going out of the business because they are coming with single digit loans from abroad to compete with us the local operators. So, we need to protect the industry or else, it will go down,” he lamented.