The Nigeria Shipowners Association of Nigeria (NISA) on Thursday in Lagos extended a reconciliation offer to aggrieved members to join hands in building a more vibrant association.
Mr Sola Adewunmi, newly elected President, NISA, said this at the inauguration of the newly elected Executive council that would pilot the affairs of the association for the next two years.
Adewunmi appreciated and thanked members of the association for the confidence reposed in the exco to pilot the affairs of the association.
“Be assured that the interest of members will be protected.
“During every election, there are bound to be some people that will be aggrieved, I just want to appeal to everyone to come together so that we can form a very strong association for the benefit of all concerned,” he said.
Adewunmi also announced the readiness of his newly elected exco to hit the ground running, adding that the association would be moving to a newly fully furnished secretariat before the end of May.
The NISA boss said that his exco would work with the Federal Government to harness the huge potential of the maritime industry.
“We will work with the vision and ideas of the founding fathers of the association, I also have a young vibrant team that can deliver and I believe we can achieve a lot.
“As we all know, shipping is a trillion-naira industry, Maritime itself is an industry and shipping is a big aspect of the maritime industry. We’ll be liaising with all the relevant agencies like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the rest.
“There are so many areas that we can venture into, we are going to tap into all that shipping encompasses. We are going to work with everybody to ensure that we expand the scope,” he said.
He said that they would liaise with the new government and make recommendations on how to leverage the many advantages of shipping as there are many countries living solely on shipping
Adewunmi noted that the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) a brainchild of the association would hold before the end of 2023 or early next year.
“We don’t want to put up an haphazard event, so, if the event does not happen in 2023, it will take place in early 2024. We’ll institute a strong committee that will drive this project,” he said.
On his part, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr Isaac Jolapamo pointed out that there was so much work to be done.
He expressed confidence in the ability of the new executive to hit the ground running now that the baton of leadership had been handed to them.
“We need to see some changes, we’ve been in this fight for so long without getting anywhere, your administration will bring about the realization of the reasons why the association was created in the first place, he said.