Harnessing Potential in Africa’s Oceans

The effort by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to champion the effective use of the African ocean and seas for diversification will lead to continent’s economic emancipation, writes Eromosele Abiodun

The attention given to the responsible use of the oceans in Africa to contribute to economic growth has continued to rise.

Experts believe the opportunities around Africa’s blue economies are enormous with significant potential to create jobs and improve livelihoods.

Africa’s vast coastline hosts a maritime industry estimated at $1 trillion per year and this is only scratching the surface.

Africa has 38 coastal states and a number of island states like Cape Verde, Sao Tomé and Principe, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Comoros. Collectively African coastal and island states encompass vast ocean territories of an estimated 13 million square kilometre (km2).

The Seychelles, for example, has 1.3 million km2 of ocean territory that remains largely underdeveloped. Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa (approximately 3 000 km) and claims ocean territory stretching about 120 km off shore.

But what are often missing in debates are issues of governance and security.

Five themes are particularly important to ensure both: safety and security; rule of law and transparency; respect for human rights; sustainable economic opportunity and human development.

Experts believe many African countries are failing to ensure safe and secure conditions for those working and living off the oceans. Tracts of the sea off East, West and North Africa are often labelled lawless.

Illegal fishing, sea piracy and armed robbery, drug and human smuggling have assumed staggering proportions. Capping this is the rise in illegal migration.

For this to change, experts said diverse actors need to start cooperating across national boundaries to secure and use ocean territories. It has become common knowledge that individual states can do little on their own. The solution of cooperation is simple but difficult to sell to a critical mass of African governments that are often suspicious of collective agendas.

Failure to ensure that ocean territories are secure promotes ungoverned spaces which criminals exploit. At worst, neglected maritime spaces benefit insurgents and terrorists as is obvious in Libya, Somalia and Nigeria.

Africa has had to contend with three volatile oceanic regions where criminality makes it impossible for countries to realise the potential of their oceans. These are the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the waters of the Mediterranean to the north of Libya.

A common denominator in the three hubs is that countries on these coasts have failed to make the areas safe. This has opened the door to criminal actors. A recent Greenpeace report found that the West African region loses about $2 billion to illegal fishing.

Integrated Maritime Strategy

“Most African countries are keenly aware of both the ocean’s potential as well as the threats to this potential.

“A number of initiatives point to this. These include: the African Union’s 2012 Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050 which recognises and encourages the importance of African countries paying greater attention to their maritime interests and the recently agreed Lomé Charter – a continental effort to encourage and coordinate efforts by African states to attend to maritime security, safety and development,” the report stated.

Others the report said are, “the Yaoundé Code of Conduct for West Africa which maps out an inter-regional set of responsibility zones to oversee and facilitate responses to growing criminality in the Gulf of Guinea and an increase in the presence of international naval capabilities off the Horn of Africa to stem the piracy tide off Somalia.

“This was complemented by the Djibouti Code of Conduct that enabled East African intervention to counter piracy threats. The code has been extended to include other maritime crimes.

“At national level the Seychelles’ government has set the tone with its explicit focus on the importance of the blue economy. A National Blue Economy Roadmap aims to advance economic diversification, unlock investments and address food security.

“Although the approach taken by the Seychelles seems obvious given its dependence on the surrounding oceans, the connection is just as important for Africa’s other 38 coastal states.”

South Africa, the report pointed out, runs a host of maritime initiatives to tap into the blue economy.

“The country recently adopted a policy – called Operation Phakisa aimed at four priority areas: marine transport and manufacturing, offshore oil and gas exploration, aquaculture and marine protection services,” it stated.

Despite all these initiatives a great deal still needs to be done. The most important are around governance and security.

Unfortunately, well networked actors threatening the security of African waters are growing at an alarming rate.

Maritime security experts believe African countries can address this by, in the first instance, ensuring that their national laws are aligned with the United Nation’s treaty aimed at ocean safety.

Secondly, the experts added that African countries need to start working together, saying, “It’s clear that single countries can do very little on their own. They need to sign up to multilateral initiatives. A growing network of collective maritime security is key to harnessing the Blue Economy.”

NIMASA Takes the Lead

For Nigeria not to be left out of the growing effort to make effective use of the ocean and seas resource, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has since last year put plans in place to work with stakeholders in the maritime sector to make the blue economy Nigeria’s economic mainstay. Last week in Lagos, NIMASA in conjunction with the African Union(AU) brought together stakeholders in the maritime sector to mark the African Day of the Seas and Oceans, tagged: “Partnership Key to a Sustainable Blue World.”

At the forum, stakeholders brainstormed on how Nigeria and other African countries can confront the challenges and ensure that the blue economy becomes the new frontier. Instituted by the African Union in 2015, the forum drew attention to the strategic importance of proper management of marine resources for the development of the African continent in a sustainable manner.

In his address, the Director General of the NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, stated that partnership was a crucial element to the effective utilisation of Africa’s maritime resources.

The NIMASA boss noted that the need for countries in the African continent to collaborate has become imperative to realise a common goal, geared towards the actualisation of the Blue Economy.

Passion for Africa’s Partnership

According to Peterside, “Our passion for Africa’s partnership inspires our leadership role in the Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA) to continue to innovate with ideas to pull African Maritime Administrations (MARAD) together for sustainable realisation of the objectives of the African Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS) 2050 towards a peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa where there will be equal opportunity to participate towards economic growth.”

Speaking further, Peterside noted that the world was concerned about the sustainable use of the seas and oceans as it is endowed with enormous resources, hence the need for Africa to utilise the opportunities embedded in it.

While using the opportunity to call for more collaboration among stakeholders in realising a robust maritime sector in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, he assured that NIMASA will continue to engage and educate the public on the sustainable use of the seas and oceans.

Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director, Starz Marine and Engineering Services Limited, Greg Ogbeifun, who was the chairman of the event said the world was beginning to go back to the original