Emmanuel: Africa has too many walls that give false sense of protection against neighbouring countries.
By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaech, has said that the rail sector remains the heartbeat of President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The minister who was represented by the Director of Urban and Mass Transit, Mrs. Anthonia Ekpa, spoke at the first extraordinary meeting of the African Union of Transport and Logistics Organizations (AUTLO) in Abuja, said the rail sector is being given due recognition by the ministry as driver of development.
In the current government the transport ministry has a very important role to play as it has achieved a lot in all the modules of transportation such as aviation, water and most importantly rail which is the heart beat of this administration.
He said: “Under this administration and of course everyone knows that the minister (I) have a passion for the rail sector as it has improved quiet significantly and I must say that in the entire life of the ministry of transportation, this administration has given the rail sector its due recognition.
He commended the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Mohammed Bello for his collaboration in expanding the frontiers of the sector to use the transportation sector develops the territory.
Amaechi, said transportation and logistics are inextricably inter-wined like siamese-twins as they just must be working together and cannot be separated.
According to him, federal government acknowledged that transportation plays in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He added that is willing to collaborate with all the stakeholders at the meeting to reposition the sector as driver of economic development.
“We want to see the nexus between the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics (CILT) and the AUTLO. We have taken notice of the critical content of this association.
“We will collaborate and give support through advocacy for continental regional integration.
“We are partnering with the World Bank for regional integration, urban transport, mobility and road safety. These are the passion for government and international partner supported by the World Bank.”
The Minister said the ministry is developing a logistics framework for transport enabled development of agriculture sector, stressing that it had gone far on that and one of the critical projects that are that is logistic driven is what we call the road prime control system is the ministry’s baby to help the logistics development of the nation.
In his remark, Engr. John Emmanuel, the Coordinator, Research and Head of Administration of Transport Growth Initiative (TGI), emphasized that development of the transport sector is a sine-qua-non for great societies.
According to him, inefficient transport system is the only reason why goods from China is cheaper and gets easily to Nigerian than from Botswana, a country in the same continent.
Emmanuel also blamed the frequent road crashes on poor transportation, adding that Nigeria loses about 3 percent of its GDP to road fatality.
“There is inefficiency of system, inadequate funding, for instance the road construction budget of Nigeria between 2000 and 2009 is about $1 billion. And in one year alone Israel expended $5 billion in road construction.” He said.