By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Sept. 04, GNA – The National Integrated Maritime Strategy (NIMS), recently launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is to promote maritime job creation in Ghana as part of its priority actions.
The NIMS has a vision to ensure that Ghana’s maritime space would be safe and secure by 2040, with thriving blue economy sectors that create social benefits with an enduring impact on the livelihoods of every Ghanaian while contributing more than twice their current percentage to gross domestic product growth.
The framers of the NIMS indicated in the strategy, whose copy is available to the Ghana News Agency in Tema, that they aim at achieving this vision by ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of Ghana’s marine resources and developing a vibrant and safe commercial shipping industry.
It also aimed at making the country’s ports the preferred destinations in West and Central Africa, strengthening its offshore oil and gas revenue base, developing the maritime tourism industry, and ensuring that the maritime domain was free from criminal activities.
The latest NIMS stressing job creation as one of its priority actions stated that, as a developing economy with a burgeoning youthful population and high unemployment, the country’s maritime estate provides good job opportunities for current and future generations.
It indicated that to advance job creation, the Government of Ghana shall commit to prioritising local expertise and manpower in the implementation of all aspects of the NIMS.
It would also ensure the development, advancement, or support of training and capacity-building programmes aimed at building the capacity of individuals to gain employment in the maritime industry and other agencies operating within the maritime domain.
As part of the priority action, the NIMS would also boost the growth of shipping and related industries through public-private partnerships and promote cabotage in Ghana, especially in the oil and gas industry, to increase the participation of indigenous shipping lines in the transportation of Ghana’s sea cargo.
The NIMS is guided by seven core principles: national ownership, social inclusion and impact, synergy, accountability, partnerships and cooperation, technology and innovation, and sustainability.
The six objectives of the NIMS are to strengthen the framework for maritime governance, ensure the safety and security of Ghana’s maritime domain, and develop a thriving blue economy.
It is also to protect Ghana’s marine and coastal environment, promote capacity-building, research, awareness, and knowledge-sharing in the maritime domain, as well as develop dynamic and diversified regional and international cooperation.
GNA