{"id":348173,"date":"2025-09-29T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T00:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348173"},"modified":"2025-09-28T16:30:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:30:45","slug":"blue-economy-fg-targets-lower-logistic-costs-trade-competitiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348173","title":{"rendered":"Blue Economy: FG Targets Lower Logistic Costs, Trade Competitiveness\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">The Federal Government says its new National Marine and Blue Economy policy is designed to cut logistics costs.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">It also said the policy is designed to boost trade competitiveness and attract private sector investment into the transport and maritime sectors.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u00a0Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, disclosed this at the 2025 Transportation Correspondents Association of Nigeria (TCAN) Annual Summit, in Lagos.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Represented by the Director, Maritime Services, Department of Marine &amp; Blue Economy, Dr Mercy Ilori, Oyetola explained that the policy would provide a framework for seamless intermodal integration across road, rail, barge and pipeline channels.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He added that the policy was aimed at transforming Nigeria into a logistics hub for West and Central Africa.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cBy lowering the cost of doing business, improving turnaround times and creating an enabling environment for private capital, we are positioning Nigeria as a preferred logistics destination in Africa,\u201d Oyetola said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Oyetola highlighted key interventions already underway to include the operationalisation of the Lagos\u2013Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail line.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Minister said that the rail line was to enable port cargo evacuation, expansion of barge operations at Lagos and Onne ports and the completion of the Apapa\u2013Oshodi Expressway.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He included the commissioning of the 27 kilometers Lekki Port Access Road as another intervention.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Oyetola identified the development of inland dry ports in Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano and Funtua, to ease pressure on seaports and support regional economies.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He stressed that the success of the reforms depended on collaboration among shipping lines, terminal operators, freight forwarders, investors and regulators.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Oyetola insisted that Nigeria must adopt digital, green and climate-resilient logistics solutions, to remain globally competitive.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Also Speaking, Minister of Transportation, Sa\u2019idu Ahmed Alkali, stated that government had recently approved the National Land Transport Policy after decades of futile struggle.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Represented by the Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr. Kayode Opeifa, Alkali said that the policy would undoubtedly serve as a veritable tool to facilitate all developments in the land transport sub-sector.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The minister appreciated President Bola Tinubu for spearheading the National Transport Sector Reform project through laudable policies, initiatives and commitments.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said these commitments would aid the actualising of the Renewed Hope Agenda, by making public transportation efficient, effective, safe, secure, integrated and affordable.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Earlier, Chairman, TCAN , Tola Adenubi, regretted that Nigeria is yet to have an acceptable protocol to guide the entire transport system, leaving the space open to all comers.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Adenubi added that though transportation addressed challenges of moving from one point to another, doing so seamlessly had remained man\u2019s major headache.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cWhile Nigeria is grappling with the absence of a national transport policy that should guide her modes of transport, the pressure exerted on the roads by petroleum tankers and trucks have left many roads in sorry state.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cAlso, the remaining modes rail, air and waterways have their own share of challenges and there should be solutions to them,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">By: Chinedu Wosu<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Government says its new National Marine and Blue Economy policy is designed to cut logistics costs. It also said the policy is designed to boost trade competitiveness and attract private sector investment into the transport and maritime sectors. \u00a0Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, disclosed this at the 2025 Transportation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67315,"featured_media":348210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/67315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348221,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348173\/revisions\/348221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}