The Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, has expressed the hope that within 90 days the Ministry will be able to secure accommodation to enable the take off of the Regional Maritime Development Bank .
Mr Sambo made this known when the Secretary General, Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa, MOWCA, Dr. Paul Adalikwu on Wednesday.
He said “When i resumed here, i realised immediately that the Regional Maritime Bank is one of the lowest hanging fruits that we can achieve within a very very short time. Infact 90 days is too long”.
The Minister said that all efforts towards getting accommodation via the Central Bank of Nigeria has not yielded any outcomes, and therefore would approach the Attorney General of the Federation to see if one of the forfeited properties can be allocated to the bank.
The Secretary General of MOWCA, Dr. Paul Adalikwu, stated that the idea of a Regional Maritime Development bank , RMDB, was conceived 11 years ago to facilitate single digit interest loans to enable key players in the sector compete favourably with their international counterparts.
According to Dr Adalikwu, “8 countries have signed the Charter as required in the document establishing the bank. Two weeks ago, DRC Congo also signed making it 9 countries. One above the threshold required for the establishment of the Act”.
The meeting had in attendance the Minister of State for Transportation, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani and other Directors of the Ministry.
RN