To protect the inland waterways, the minister also said the ministry would procure three water ambulances for areas where accidents were prevalent.

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He said a national policy on blue economy will be unveiled by year’s end.

Oyetola said the reforms initiated by the ministry and the deployment of modern technology led to an increase in revenue.

The minister also explained that the proposed shipping line would boost the economy and give opportunity to ship owners and others in the sector to thrive.

Oyetola added: “Efforts are in top gear to create a national carrier based on a PPP arrangement that will entail very limited equity participation by the government.

“This will reduce capital flight, create shipping jobs, and enable Nigerian ship owners to benefit more from the global maritime shipping trade through Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) of cargo onboard.

“The point of a shipping line is not to bring back the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL). The issue is that we should have a shipping line.

“We realised that we are losing so much in the area of freight because we don’t have a shipping line that would compete with most of the other shipping lines in other parts of the world.

“So, the intention is to have PPP, the government may decide to have token equity or it could be a purely private partnership.

“We are not looking at bringing back the moribund or liquidated NNSL. I don’t believe the government should be in business.

“The government will create an enabling environment for business to thrive. The failure of the first line was because NNSL was purely run by the government and it died a natural death.

“We should allow the private sector people that are trained for business to drive business.

“So, we are looking at a partnership perhaps between government and private or private-private but we need to have a line that will fly our own flag and enjoy the opportunity of not only participating in freight but also participating in bringing import to our country.

“If we have our own line, we are entitled to about 40 per cent of import coming to our country. So, that is the kind of thing we are looking at and not NNSL that is liquidated.”

For the safety of the inland waterways, he said: “Deployment of Water Ambulances – we have deployed three water ambulances for prompt search and rescue operations on the inland waterways. This will reduce fatalities whenever accidents occur on our inland waters.

“The issue of water ambulance is a pilot scheme is meant to take care of specific areas and we are going to buy more to cover the entire country but there are specific places where accidents are very prevalent, so we want to ensure that these three ambulances are deployed to take care of those areas where we have been having lots of accident.

“The intention is to ensure that we have enough to go around the entire country to cover our inland waterways.”

The minister also said in line with its key performance indicator, the ministry had initiated consultations with relevant bodies to reduce, by the end of the year, the number of agencies at the seaports to a maximum of even to fast-track port processes.

The minister said the extension of the continental shelf will add more to Nigeria’s marine resources, saying: “We have an exclusive economic zone of over 200 nautical miles, and 10, 000 kilometres of inland waterways capable of supporting a vibrant intra-regional trade.

“We are blessed with strategic navigational routes linking Africa with North and South America, Europe, and Asia, making the shipping industry potentially a major driver of our country’s economy.

“Let me hasten to add that the recent expansion of our continental maritime domain came at the right time. Here, we must commend Mr. President on the work of the Presidential Committee on Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project.”

“The expansion gave us an additional 16,300 square kilometers which is six times the size of Lagos State. This has no doubt added more to the marine resources base of Nigeria.”

Oyetola boasts Tinubu govt raised marine revenue by 92% in one year