By Tony Adibe
A renowned global Professor of Environment and Climate Change at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Christian Madu, has advised Nigerians to exploit the great opportunities in the blue or marine economy for job creation and poverty alleviation.
Prof. Madu gave the advice made on Friday in a paper titled: “Blue Economy – New Opportunities for Nigeria”, presented visually at the ongoing 2nd Hybrid International Conference of the Institute of Maritime Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
The Blue Economy, also known as “Marine Economic System,” is an ecosystem of economic activities that focuses on commerce on large bodies of water like lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans with ecological responsibility. The lecturer said that the opportunities had potentials for poverty alleviation, food security, and development of new economic and ecosystem sectors that have potentials to create employment opportunities.
On the national macroeconomic level, the blue economy has potentials of transitioning Nigeria from a unitary-based economy depending solely on crude oil to a truly diversified economy with huge foreign earnings, according to the university don.
He said: “We have 18 economic activities identified that can generate earnings and jobs in the Blue Economy, which included: coastal tourism; deep seas shipping; short sea shipping (already being done by Nigerians); yachting and marines; and ferry services.
“Others are: fishery services and its value-added chain; inland waterways transport (human and cargo); inland waterways tourism; inland waterways real estate; coastal protection/security services; marine monitoring and surveillance services; and aquatic production (of edible water vegetables, fruits and animals).
“The rest are: Cruise tourism; offshore oil and gas exploration; biotechnology; marine solid mineral mining (already being done by advanced countries); desalination and offshore energy (sourcing power via tidal/wave energy and ocean thermal energy conversion).”
Madu, who is with the Center for Environmental Management and Green Energy (CEMAGE) University of Nigeria, also called for development of underdeveloped waterways, lakes, rivers, seas, coastal and marine areas.
He said that this could be done through dredging and recharging with additional water to these shrinking waterways, lakes, rivers, and seas, and doing publicity about their economic potentials rather than focusing only on existing sea and coastal lines.
“Expanding the business opportunities as we have shown clearly indicates that new and emerging sectors can be developed; as the traditional sectors may not exploit the vast opportunities available in the blue economy.
“There is a need to develop a sustainable blueprint/policy for the blue economy that is based on Plan-Do-Check (Study) – Act,” he said.
He called on the government to constantly and clearly define goals and objectives that recognise both the human and ecological needs of the blue economy.
“Develop legal and regulatory frameworks that insist on sustainability goals; and an implementation framework to focus on building local and national economies, and avoiding environmental degradation of the marine and coastal lines.
“View blue economy as an integral part of the national economy and marine and coastal lines as important life support to coastal communities and beyond to uplift their social status. Establish consistent standards to protect marine life and exploitation of marine resources,” he added. The conference is themed: “Navigating the Future: Anchoring Sustainability While Bridging the Gap between Economic Growth and Marine Preservation.”
