Business
‘Transport Promotes Socio-economic Integration’
Transport has been identified as an indispensable bridge that connects nations for socio-economic growth.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport, John Akuno made the observation on Friday in Port Harcourt during an interview with The Tide.
According to him, “a nation without workable transport system and policy is like an Island disconnected from the rest of the world”.
He noted that the role of transport in nation building was multifaceted, adding that a nation that made its transport system technologically and economically efficient could not afford to neglect it.
His words: “The transport sector can be developed through education, training, research and technological development. This explains why the Federal Government established the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria, 25 years ago.
“Without transport, our agricultural production which is the mainstay of the nation’s economy, will remain subsistence because there will be no need to produce beyond family consumption.
“Healthcare service delivery will be impossible without transportation, just as city development and settlement would have been difficult. Many areas of life will suffer without transportation”, he stated.
Akuno also stressed the need for matching transport facilities with capacity building to manage them so that assets would appreciate rather than depreciate with time.
He, however, decried the situation whereby not many Nigerians cared to know about the importance of transport in the development of the economy, polity, social interaction and integration.