Maersk shipping company has responded to the news making rounds in the social media, insinuating it has commenced a full shipping operation at Onitsha Inland Port.

The news broke out early Wednesday morning as a pic of the dockyard being commissioned, and shipment schedule from Maersk showing China – Onitsha destination surfaced online.

“We took a walk at the Onitsha pilot port after it was commissioned today. The port is at its full function. Such a pleasant sight! Congrats to the importers,” a Twitter user wrote.

Series of tweets praising the development followed, as many others joined the preaching.

“So Onitsha Port was commissioned yesterday & you can now send a container from China to Onitsha without going through Lagos? And some of have been using it for months but kept quiet? Why do people refuse to talk when good things happen in Nigeria,” Dr. Joe Abah wrote.

However, in response to inquiry about their operations in Onitsha Inland Port, Maersk said in an email response to Tekedia that the news has been inaccurate.

“There are some inaccurate news reports going around as we are not calling at Onitsha port with our vessels as this is not operationally feasible due to the draft of our vessels.

“We do however offer a through bill product for our customers in which cargo discharged at Onne is trucked to the Clarion Depot in Onitsha, which is roughly opposite the Niger River,” Kerry Rosser, Maersk Africa Communication Manager told Tekedia.

The Onitsha Inland Port was rehabilitated and commissioned in 2012, in view to accommodate vessels and ease Lagos Ports of congestion. But the port is yet to commence full operation since then.

A Seaport

Last month, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) said the commencement of shipping operations is targeted at the first quarter of 2021. NIWA’s Area Manager at Onitsha Area Office, Mrs. Queen Uba said operations at the port have been on hold due to the ongoing concession process, but NIWA is ready for its operations as soon as the process is complete.

“NIWA has put in place all necessary things for effective operation of the port and we are just waiting for the completion of the concession process. While we are waiting for the completion of the concession process, the management has entered into agreement with Connect rail Services Limited to kick start the lifting of goods from the port to other places in the country,” she said.

Onitsha Inland Port was built under the administration of President Shehu Shagari in 1983 and since then, it has been lying fallow and completely under-utilized until 2012 when it was rehabilitated and commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

It is hoped that NIWA will live up to the challenge and facilitate shipping operations in the port that will spur its activities beyond a clarion depot for trucking cargoes.

Around the world, the drums of innovation are beating louder. The resulting lyric is transformational as technological innovation continues to facilitate the process of socio-economic developments of nations. The anchor driver, ICT, is enabling new ways of exchanging information, and transacting businesses, efficiently and cheaply. It has also changed the dynamic natures of all major industries and provided better means of using the human and institutional capabilities of nations in both the public and private sectors, radically altering the ordinances of trade and commerce, at regional and international levels.   

As ICT transforms economies into knowledge-based economic systems, and data societies, made of citizens, firms and states, entwined in electronically linked interdependent relationships, the constructs of market systems will never be the same. 

This year, I have the honour to be coordinating for the Nigerian people through the Nigerian Economic Summit Group a design for e-Nigeria. We are looking at many digital anchors towards transforming the architecture of the Nigerian economy. 

For example, while it may not be popular, markets could be more effective in delivering some services which the government is doing now. So, using public-benefits companies, are there ways we can simultaneously improve delivery- and cost-efficiency for the citizens? The U.S. has Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to keep records of financial transactions of Americans, and then use the data to anchor a credit system in America. Besides the citizen identity, what model do we adopt for the application utilities across our sectors?

LinkedIn is my Lab and I am reaching out to the community.

• 1. What three sectors, domains or initiatives do you expect Nigeria to focus within the broad construct of digitalization? The goal here is to improve our capacity to combine and recombine factors of production and serve markets, companies and citizens better as a nation.
• 2. How can Nigeria execute any national digital initiative it commits to within cost and time? 

Let us have a conversation.

I have accepted to speak at The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN)’s Accountants Conference which is scheduled  on Nov 17/18 2020. The first professional body which I joined upon starting my bank job, a few days after NYSC, was ICAN. I have read all the profiles of bank executive directors and CEOs and noticed one common factor: most were chartered accountants. So, I reasoned, if this bank job was to take me to the top, passing ICAN must be part of the immediate playbook.

I went through the Foundation level. Did well on the Intermediate level, and was in the Professional Exam 1 when I left banking back to electrical engineering. Largely, the ICAN certification was never to practice accounting. I saw it as an exam which could be passed after diligent studies, and in a banking ecosystem, though in the IT business, having that would not hurt.

Why this torture? Diamond Bank was paying for everything. They paid for the Cisco and Microsoft certification exams. They paid for the ICAN Intermediate exam which I had added in case I had to remain in Nigerian banking. (My matrix of Nigerian bank executives showed most had ICAN; so, I assumed, to get to the top, it made sense to get mine. I never completed ICAN before I left Nigeria. But I did well in the Foundation and Intermediate phases.) Diamond Bank HR people liked me. I had my nickname “Prof” which Ohis Ohiwere (now an Executive Director with GTBank) gave me while in the training school.

I see accountants as the high priests of markets because they help nations understand the pulse of the private sector. I look forward to Nov 17.

My First Day in America and Kindness of Diamond Bank Lagos