NACETEM tasked on innovation to boost blue economy

Technological innovation has been described as very crucial to Nigeria’s burgeoning blue economy with the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) tasked with more innovative ways to accelerate activities within the ecosystem.

These were parts of experts’ submissions at the National Workshop on Exploring the Potential of Blue Economy for Sustainable Development in Nigeria organised by NACETEM in Lagos.

Leading the charge, the Chief Executive Officer, Etcetera Consult Limited, Dr Alban Igwe, said in his presentation, that there are lots of opportunities in the blue economy in which NACETEM would harness their innovative expertise.

Igwe said that the worldwide ocean economy is valued at about $15trn per annum making it the seventh largest economy in the world and 350 million jobs worldwide are linked to fisheries.

In his presentation, titled: ‘Innovation in Blue Economy Development in Nigeria,’ Igwe said maritime education and research are the bedrock of the blue economy and NACETEM could be a major partner of the ecosystem.

“NACETEM is like an oil well. If you do not exploit it, it will be in the sea waiting. NACETEM is also at the heart of solving Nigeria’s problem.

‘’When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills, in the academic world the slogan is publish or perish.

‘’While in the business world, it is innovate or die and NACETEM has to explore its innovative expertise to explore the opportunities of the blue economy for the economic growth of the nation,’’ he said.

Also speaking at the workshop, School of Transport, Lagos State University, Prof Charles Asenime, said that the blue economy is the turnkey of economic development.

Asenime said that if the government should give more attention to its primary and secondary components, it has the potential to remove Nigeria’s economy from recession. He said that it would also reduce the restlessness of youths, and improve their skill for local and international use and the financial sector has a role to play in the blue economy.

The academia, while highlighting the challenges of the blue economy as the paucity of funds in shipbuilding encouraged NACETEM to come up with innovation on ship-building and the blue economy.

The Director-General, NACETEM, Dr Olusola Odunsanya, said that there was a need to emphasise that the marine aquaculture economy was a well-thought-out idea by the Federal Government to open up a new business opportunity.

Odunsanya said that it should be seen as a business opportunity for Nigerians and the business of the marine aquaculture economy is all-encompassing and it requires new thought to look into.

The DG said it required new thought to look into to understand the biology to map and collect information that is already available in our marine environment.

According to him, before one can explore the value in any given environment one must understand it and the aquaculture economy is yet to be understood.

‘’We need to improve the vessels that enter the marine environment, so, we started a discussion with West Africa Ventures and talked about boat building, introducing fibreglass boats, introducing aluminium, welding and all of that to improve the boating environment.

“We started thinking about recreational facilities that go beyond using vessels to go on the waters, but for people to use the marine environment as a learning tool to create quizzes and programmes for children and all of that.

“So we are looking at the biology of the marine environment. We have ceded the extractive parts to those who are better at that. But there is a whole economy apart from extraction, ecotourism and all of that, that is around the biology of the blue and marine economy,” he said.

According to him, NACETEM feels that those sub-aspects will involve a lot more people and will be able to train more people on new things that could be done with the marine environment.