Nigeria is a maritime nation with lofty potentials and several challenges. However, with the plethora of negative statements several industry stakeholders make about Nigeria’s maritime sector, one begins to wonder if we are gradually beginning to demarket the nation from the maritime standpoint.
In the newsroom, bad news always makes good news and as the popular media saying goes, “if it bleeds, it leads”. It has become a norm to find the challenges, problems and shortcomings of the nation’s maritime industry, agencies and associations whenever one attends a maritime summit, listen, watch or read an interview that relates to the industry.
While it is good to talk about the negatives about the industry or an organization because it makes the leaders to sit up and make efforts to address the situation, it is equally important to note that these negative reports also succeed in discouraging foreign investors with the continued misrepresentation of the country as a business unfriendly environment, where nothing works.
Therefore, it is very important to acknowledge the positives because the responsibility to grow and develop the industry and the nation at large rests on every citizen, especially those who have reached significant positions as leaders because their words and actions can be misconstrued.
The term ‘demarketing’ is defined by Businessdictionary.com as efforts aimed at discouraging (not destroying) the demand for a product which a firm cannot supply in large-enough quantities, or does not want to supply in a certain region where the high costs of distribution or promotion allow only a too little profit margin.
Simply put, demarketing is the attempt by marketers to reduce the demand for a product. Nevertheless, the maritime industry in Nigeria today is concerned with trade facilitation, ports efficiency and competitiveness; these require marketing and not demarketing.
Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro, Secretary General, Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central African region (Abuja MoU) brought this to the fore while speaking at a recent maritime summit.
The former NIMASA DG said, “We have heard several complaints on all the negatives in the ministry of transport. The negative stories have become so much that we are beginning to de-market Nigeria. We must not only devote ourselves to demarketing Nigeria”
Highlighting one of the recent achievements in the industry, Mrs.Usoro revealed that Nigeria recently moved into the top three nations in the world in terms of port state control inspections. She noted that Nigeria had the largest number of port state control officers in the world.
Mrs.Usoro also revealed that the current National Transport Policy draft before the Senate had been reviewed to suit current challenges facing the industry.
Nigeria’s maritime industry is widely believed to have numerous untapped potentials which could make the industry the largest revenue spinner for the nation and it is pertinent that we do not portray the maritime sector negatively. The next big foreign investor might just be put off by that image-rendering comment, publication or report.
