Senate approves N1.3bn for marine transport supervision

The Senate Committee on Marine Transport yesterday approved N1.3 billion for supervision of the marine sector under the Ministry of Transportation in the 2017 budget proposal.

The budget will be executed by the Minister of Transportation and the N1.3 billion refers only the operations of the Minister’s work as relates to the marine sector and doesn’t apply to the agencies under the ministry. The agencies have separate budgets which they will defend on a later date.

The approval was given yesterday when the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi appeared before senators for budget defence and also present the budget estimates for the Nigerian Shippers Council, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Maritime Academy Oron and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).

The breakdown show that, seafarers development, NIMPORT, NIMAREX, WISTA will get N12,257,600.00, performance audit for agencies in Transportation - NIMASA, NPA, Shippers Council and MAN Oron is to gulp N1.1 billion, IMO conventions, elections into Category C of the IMO Council is budgeted N101,171,520 and the development of policies for participation of women in international shipping is given N21,530,760.00.

Other projects include; the nautical chart data base for ports and channels which will get N7,499,140 and the bathymetric assessment of dredged navigational channels will get N41,799,216.00.