The transportation industry can contribute about 10 per cent to Nigeria’s gross domestic products, GDP, if the right policies are in place to drive the sector, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC, Hassan Bello has said.

Bello said to achieve this, there must be massive investment in infrastructure and training for operators and regulators on new global trends in transportation services.

The NCS Boss stated this over the weekend when he received officials of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, NITT, led by its Director General, Dr. Aminu Yusuf, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

He stressed that as Nigeria looks to export to diversify its economy, transportation and shipping are the key, adding that there must be processes put in place to achieve this.

Bello said the NSC is knowledge- driven hence there is need for the maritime sector to be driven by personnel in specialised knowledge.

“So many mistakes have been made in the industry as a result of the huge knowledge gap. We cannot afford to make any mistakes this time that we have limited opportunity in the sector. Transportation is a significant aspect of the Nigerian economy. The time has come for the sector to mean something and contributes a huge portion of the nation’s GDP,” he said.

“There is need for investment to get the sector to be properly linked to the Nigerian economy. The shippers council is interested in developing policies that is aimed at growing the transportation sector. There is a gap in the industry today. The industry is knowledge driven hence the need for training and retraining.”

The NSC boss restated the council’s determination to partner the NITT for effective training and capacity building development of personnel.

While noting that capacity building is instrumental to the development of the maritime sector, Bello stressed that there is need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the agency and the institution.

Bello lauded the effort made so far by the institute on training stating that it has trained a large number of professionals in the transport sub sector of the economy. In addition, he urged the institute to put in place awareness campaign programme to move the training outfit forward.