Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The federal government has inaugurated a 19 – man Committee to finalise the review of the draft National Transport Policy for Nigeria.
Inaugurating the committee recently in Abuja, Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, charged the committee to produce the final document as quickly as possible so that it can be ratified by the appropriate authority and thereafter made available to the public.
He recalled that the National Transport Policy document had gone to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) where it was referred to the National Economic Council (NEC) for necessary input.
According to him, “The NEC afterwards made some observations which involved making the policy statement and objectives to be Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Reliable, Time Bound (SMART) and implementable, with a chapter dedicated to implementation strategy and role definition advising also that the Pipeline and Aviation modes of the policy document should be further enriched.â€
The Minister, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Sabiu Zakari, disclosed that the merging of the ministry made it easy to get the aviation sub sector to embellish its component while the newly created Department of Road Transport and Mass Transit Administration in the ministry has also enhanced the updated document.
He added that in order to further enrich the document, additional inputs were received from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and provision was also made to accommodate Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the procurement of the national carriers in the sector.
“A chapter for implementation time frame and the role of stakeholders was also included in the updated draft,†he said.
Responding, the Chairperson of the newly inaugurated Committee, Barrister (Mrs.) Mfon Usoro thanked the minster for the confidence repose in them and promised to work assiduously with her committee’s members within the time frame to achieve the objectives of government in the Transportation Sector.
Usoro, who is the Secretary General, Abuja (MoU) on Port State Control added that the ministry is following worldwide consultations of wide spectrum stakeholders which would give the document wide acceptability in line with the international best practices.
Membership of the committee were drawn from the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) including the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), state commissioners of transportation in the Six geographical zones of the Federation, Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Nigerian college of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Rep. of Air Transport Management, Rep. of Chartered Institute of Logistic and Transport, Rep. of National Centre for Technology management.
