The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Friday pledged the ministry’s readiness to assist the Regional Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) in the establishment of a Maritime Development Bank.

Mrs Yetunde Sonaike, the ministry’s Director of Public Relations, made this known in a statement she issued in Abuja.

The statement said that the minister gave the assurance when the representative of the Secretary-General of MOWCA, Col. Mariko Mamadou, visited him in his office in Abuja.

According to the statement, Nigeria has been offered the right to provide the secretariat for the MOWCA Development Bank.

It said the idea to establish a regional development bank for the organisation was conceived in 2000, adding that the minister requested MOWCA to furnish the ministry with the detailed status of the organisation and documentation of the projects of the organisation.

It said Amaechi reiterated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the principle of single window in Nigeria for the maritime sub-sector.

MOWCA was further requested, as a matter of policy, to write a formal letter to the ministry spelling out Nigeria’s responsibility in the establishment of the Maritime Development Bank.

“As soon as I receive a memo from your Secretary-General, I will take it up from there,” the statement quoted Amaechi as saying.

Earlier, the Technical Director of MOWCA, Col Mariko Mamadou, had congratulated the minister on his appointment and stated that he was in Nigeria to solicit ministry’s support to achieve success in the establishment of the Maritime Development Bank.

“Mamadou further enumerated some of the organisation’s priority plans as the setting up of MOWCA’s Secretariat in Nigeria, appointment of a Project Coordinator, Financial Consultant/Business Consultant and Legal Consultant, who would be responsible to perfect all legal documents for the smooth take-off of the organisation’s projects in Nigeria, the statement said.”

It urged Nigeria as a member-state of MOWCA and all permanent representatives of International Maritime Organization (IMO), to adopt the Cargo Tracking Note, to facilitate Cargo Security and trade.

It also encouraged other member-states to adopt the principle of Single Window for same reasons.

It said Mamadou disclosed that the Secretary-General of MOWCA had directed that Nigeria should be invited in place of Angola to represent MOWCA at the next International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in London. (NAN)

•Photo shows Amaechi.