As the federal government battles severe revenue generation challenges, experts have pointed to maritime tourism as a major foreign exchange earner, saying that Nigeria currently loses about $2 billion annually for not tapping into that lucrative sub-sector.

The Chief Executive Officer of Wealthy Honey Investment Nigeria Limited, Dr Farinto Collins, who spoke to Daily Sun in interview, said that the loss could be converted to profit if strategic investments are made to harness its potential.

He said Nigeria is still lagging behind in the area of maritime tourism due successive leadership myopia.

“I just mentioned that administrative acumen is inbuilt. We can’t even acquire it anywhere and you can also garner it through experience anyway. It is unfortunate that the ministry of Blue Economy is not moving forward. By now Federal Government should be making money through tourism.

“I went to Amsterdam, I saw a tourism vessel for €5 million that ordinarily if you bring it here, it would be a source of revenue for government maybe on a PPP agreement or government owned abinitio, after a while government will now remove its hands even when the ministry of Blue Economy is not up and doing or even when the ministry is unable to harnessed the various resources.

He lamented that under the nation’s sea there are many resources that have not been tapped which can be a source of revenue for the government.

“Our intention when we are saying the ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should be visible because we want the untapped resources under the waters to be harnessed. But unfortunately, you cannot put a round peg in a square hole. That is the major problem we have.

However, a marine engineer, Udok Bassey said despite that Nigeria possessed natural endowments and abundant resources in oceans and seas to back its economic diversification and development drive, Nigeria is not listed among Africa’s 15th maritime tourism nations.

He added that the reason is not far-fetched be the country is yet to take full advantage of its ocean resources especially in the maritime tourism subsector to expand its economy.

According to him, part of the challenges facing the Nigerian economy is the neglect of the nation’s maritime tourism business, which remains untapped while other regions and countries like United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central and South America have continued to exploit market opportunities abounding in their marine tourism.

He said these Africa countries like South Africa and others have been raking in huge revenues annually from their maritime tourism.

“But it is believed that if Nigeria’s maritime tourism industry is developed and attracts private investors; it could have multiplier effects on its tourism sector in general. Presently, the global maritime tourism business is worth over $6.45 trillion, with Nigeria losing out in the massive opportunities embedded in the industry due to inability of successive governments to design and drive a coordinated policy framework to address this emergent reality.

“But as demand for tourism expands worldwide, there are still immense opportunities for investors to exploit Nigeria‘s coastal and maritime resorts for revenue generation and job creation. These opportunities include the creation of a marine mall, cruise ships and the fostering of marine sports. Ideally, driving the growth of marine tourism through increased investment can be a huge area of opportunity for the private investor.

“Also, the marine environment is one of the most attractive settings for tourism and recreation, which involve a wide spectrum of activities, such asscuba diving and snorkeling, wind surfing, fishing, observation of marine mammals and birds, the ferry industry, beach activities, sea kayaking, visits to fishing villages and lighthouses, maritime museums, sailing and motor yachting, maritime events, Arctic and Antarctic tourism among the numerous opportunities embedded in the marine tourism,” he said.

He said the maritime industry is a key sector of the Nigerian economy, and for investors to come into its tourism arm, the Federal Government must provide an enabling environment, fix its entire infrastructure, and ensure the safety of the waters for tourists.

Speaking with Daily Sun, a tourism expert, Frank Meke said all over the world, there are always a big ship for tourism taking for tour from one place to the other, ships are hardly come to Nigeria, they sail in Capetown, South Africa.

“If one have to do that you have to fly down there before they take you to other part of the country. If we want to talk about maritime tourism in Nigeria, we have to look at Badagry shot and we need infrastructure to drive marine tourism.

“We are blessed in Nigeria. You can see our water ecosystem, eight out of 36 states have electoral communities, which means if you want to exploit water based trip, we have lot to do. Again, we have to Iook at the challenges and the potential in the marine tourism.

“Remember, New York is an electoral town like many of other countries, they all grow out of water. like Lokoja, Onitsha and Badagry, you see a lot of them that close to the waters. We can build waterfront properties like they do in Europe.

“Banana Island is also one of the benefits of having of an electoral water tourism environment even Lekki and Ikoyi because of their closer to waters. Ikoyi waterfront are only being enjoyed by the rich people because it is expensive to live there,” he said.

However, he said in terms of fancy property, waterfront gives Nigeria advantage in those areas, saying to start up the marine tourism is critical.

In terms of water ecosystem, he said Nigeria has not been doing fishery at all, which is another part the white people are engaging.

“There is sailing club in Lagos island where you see white people there. Apapa is a creation or an example where we can call a tourism waterfront. Before now it is Indian and white people that used to live in Apapa. Maritime tourism is very important in our economy but people are not paying attention to it,” he added.

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