REVEALED: Drop in Oil Revenue, Insecurity Forced Nigeria to Suspend Capital Dredging of Waterways for 10-Years

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Dr George Moghalu

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has revealed that the last time capital dredging work was done on Nigerian waterways was in year 2012, blaming drop in revenue from sale of crude oil, as well as insecurity as one of the reasons.

Dr Moghalu stated this while speaking recently with journalists in Lagos.
He noted that oil production in Nigeria has dropped drastically because of insecurity to less than 40-50%.

He stated that for the past ten years, the agency has only been carrying out maintenance dredging of the water channels.

According to him, the drop in oil revenue has impacted negatively on the national economy as well as on certain capital projects in key sectors.

The NIWA boss revealed that Nigeria has 10,000 km of waterways, but that as at today, only 3,600 km of the waterways are navigable.

He however assured that the agency is making plans to aquire its own dredgers to make sure that 3,600 km navigable waterways are constantly dredged and possibly expanded as much as 5000- 6000 km.

Speaking, Moghalu said “The last time capital dredging was carried out was in 2012, and I came into office in 2019 October which is seven years before I came.
For capital dredging to last and for it’s impact to last, it must be followed up with maintenance dredging, and this is where our interest lies.

“When you talk about capital dredging, you are talking about billions of Naira. So, what we are doing now as an agency, because the resources that are available to government today were not as it used to be in the past.

“Time was in this country when oil was selling for $120 per barrel. And by the time Buhari administration came into office oil dropped to a point of less than $30 a barrel, these are realities of the moment.

“Our oil production has dropped drastically because of insecurity to less than 40-50%, Nigeria is a mono product economy. Yes , emphasis is being made today by virtue of what government is doing to diversify our economy to lay emphasis on agriculture, solid minerals and what have you as another means of generating income

“But the truth still remains that, a good chunk of what is going to the federal government is coming from the oil sector and this is the truth.

“So, once oil sector is affected we don’t control it as a nation, it is controlled outside this country, and once it is affected, it rebounds on our economy, so the resources available to government is not as it used to be”

Dr Moghalu stressed that capital dredging of the waterways is very expensive, adding that what NIWA is only doing now is laying emphasis on in-house maintenance dredging.

He said that NIWA is procuring its own dredgers because the agency has the manpower to carry out the job.

“We use the dredgers to open the channel that are blocked.
Nigeria has 10,000 km of waterways, but only 3,600 km are all year navigable. We have set a task for ourselves to make sure that these 3,600 km are constantly dredged, expand as much as we can as if we can drive to 5000- 6000 km.

“But it has to be a gradual process because of the cost implication” he said

He revealed that NIWA is partnering the Navy, Army and Police to make the waterways secure and reliable so that more people can make use of the waterways.
Dr Moghalu said that Search and Rescue stations have been set up across the nation waterways.

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