Abuja — ECOWAS will lend its full support to efforts by the private sector to develop a viable maritime transport system that will facilitate intra-community trade, economic development and regional integration, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho, has assured. The president told a delegation of private sector actors involved in a regional Sealink Project, who paid him a visit on Friday, 18th November 2011 at the Commission's Abuja headquarters that the region had been prevented from doing vibrant businesses by the lack of viable maritime transportation system. He pledged the Commission's support affirming that apart from linking the private entrepreneurs with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to take the process forward, the Commission could help create the enabling environment in Member States and also link up development partners for possible participation in the Sealink Project.
The private sector delegation included Mr. Bashir Wali of the Nigerian Export- Import Bank (NEXIM), Mrs. Dorothy Ogbutor, of the Federation of West African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FEWACCI), as well as Mr. Wilson Krofal, immediate past president of FEWACCI, Alhaji Sanusi Maijama'a of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture) (NACCIMA), and Mr. Tidiane Traore, a consultant and Team leader on the Sealink Project Feasibility Study and Coordinator of the project's Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). They were at the Commission to update the president on progress of the project and to inform him that an SPV has been incorporated to drive all pre- incorporation activities towards the launching of three ships that will ply the Doula-Dakar routes linking Cameroon in Central Africa to Senegal in the West. In addition, the delegation also came to solicit the financial support of the ECOWAS Commission for the pre-incorporation expenses totally US$1.5 million, part of which will be mobilized from private sector institutions. The total capital to be mobilized for the Sealink Project is US$60 million, mainly from the private sector, which is driving the initiative under the aegis of FEWACCI and in collaboration with NEXIM Bank. In a presentation, Mr. Traore explained that in West and Central Africa, an efficient Coastal sea transport system promises to be a complementary transportation solution to the congested road transport systems and the existing shipping lines and airlines inability to meet current demand for transport infrastructure and services.
According to him, the lack of adequate transportation systems in West and Central Africa makes the cost of transporting people and cross-border trading quite prohibitive. This constitutes an impediment to regional integration and runs counter to the new vision of ECOWAS of people, anchored on the regional organization's flagship protocol of free movement of persons, goods and services in the region. To address the myriad transport challenges, ECOWAS is leading various initiatives and encouraging Public-Private Partnerships to ease the burden of land, air and sea travels on community citizens. This is with the hope of fostering integration by improving intra-community trade and exposing the region's largely untapped market of an estimated 300 million consumers to the outside world and regional producers.
