CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of Study

The maritime industry includes all enterprises engaged in the business of designing, constructing, manufacturing, acquiring, operating, supplying, repairing and/or maintaining vessels, or component parts thereof: of managing and/or operating shipping lines, stevedoring  and customs brokerage services, shipyards, dry docks, marine railways, marine repair shops, shipping and freight forwarding services and similar enterprises. This paper is primarily concerned with managing and operating shipping lines. Shipping in maritime can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of cargo by ship from point A to point B, or from port A to port B, or from one country to another. 

The maritime industry occupies a very prominent position in the economy of nations all over the world. The industry in its strict sense embraces all the maritime related business activities which take place within the country’s maritime environment. These include offshore economic activities such as fishing, salvage, towage, underwater resources and on-shore economic activities such as port activities, maritime transport (shipping), ship construction, repairs and maintenance activities. Of all these activities, shipping stands out as the greatest boost to a nation’s economic growth and development. This is so because all other maritime activities revolve around shipping.

Due to close linkage between shipping activities and economic development, most nations cannot afford to treat it with levity, hence a conscious intervention needed to ensure that the national interest is protected. (Obed, 2006:44). Shipping as a primary logistics provider is critical in the process of Nigeria’s international trade and economic development. As a mode of transport, shipping provides the cheapest and most efficient means of moving large volumes of import and export round the world thereby creating jobs and adding value to the economy. (Ma, 2010:13).

1.2 Statement of Problem

The seminal role played by shipping notwithstanding, Nigeria’s national shipping industry is in crises. This is caused by investment difficulties, management inefficiency and organizational problems among others. The formulation of national shipping policy and the establishment of the defunct Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) to implement shipping policies have not been able to fully arrest this deterioration in the productivity of the national carriers in the cargo sharing formula. The Nigerian shipping companies pass this to foreign carriers due to lack of vessels of their own. When a similar trend of decline of the UK fleet was observed in the 80’s, the British government raised an alarm not only on the absolute decline but also the speed of the decline. This has not been the situation in Nigeria, a third world nation.

The situation in Nigeria today is not encouraging because no national carrier has a seaworthy ocean going vessel. The Nigerian shipping industry faces a threat of gradual extinction as the industry tends towards the pre - 1959 period when the shipping business in Nigeria was dominated and monopolized by foreign carriers (NMA, 2006:12).

Research Objectives

1.To evaluate the extent of the contribution of the maritime sector to the development of the Nigeria economy

2. To find out effort made by national maritime Authority in it successful coordination and implementation of National shipping policy

3. To find out the problem and prospect of the Nigeria shipping industry

Research Questions

1.What is the extent of the contribution of the maritime sector to the development of the Nigeria economy

2. What are the effort made by national maritime Authority in it successful coordination and implementation of National shipping policy

3. What are the problems and prospects of the Nigeria shipping industry

Significance of Study

The study will contribute immensely to the Nigeria Maritime Authority. The study will look at the extent to which maritime sector contributes to the economy of Nigeria and create useful strategies to expand the maritime sector.

The study will also look at the problem faced by the Nigeria maritime industry and will also proffer solutions to the problem.

The study will also contribute to existing knowledge because there is no much work done on the topic.

Scope of Study

The study which aim at looking at the contribute of the maritime industry to Nigeria economic growth will be from the year 2000-2015.

Definition of Terms

Maritime; Maritime transport is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) by water. Freight transport has been achieved widely by sea throughout recorded history

Economy; Economy refers to a total sum of consumption activities, production activities and government activities as an agent which are interrelated.

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