Developing marine and coastal resources in Nigeria: Prospects and challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33175/mtr.2021.244473Keywords:
Nigeria, Marine resources, Prospects and challenges, Territorial sea, ShippingAbstract
Nigeria, with a coastline of about 853 km bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the area of the Gulf of Guinea, has a maritime area of about 46,000 km2, with significant and diverse natural marine resources. The country has numerous economic activities, in which the highest percentage depends on or is derived from the ocean resources, but it is explicitly clear that her blue economy potentials are far from being fully harnessed. The Nigerian maritime domain is rich with a variety of resources that support livelihoods and economic development. These include established activities like fisheries, shipping, offshore oil and gas, maritime and coastal tourism, marine manufacturing and construction, dredging, etc., and emerging activities such as marine aquaculture, deep and ultra-deepwater oil and gas, offshore wind energy, ocean renewable energy, marine and seabed mining, etc. The main purpose of this paper was to qualitatively investigate the prospects and challenges in developing marine resources in Nigeria and to suggest necessary recommendations. Existing literatures and documents from secondary sources were reviewed. The paper revealed that the challenges in harnessing marine resources in Nigeria are an inadequate scientific data bank, inconsistent government policy, climate change, and inadequate manpower. This paper recommends that the government need to enhance targeted capacity building, particularly at the policy, institutional, legal, and technical levels, for developing coastal states. This may result in effective exploration and mining, which may lead to sustainable marine resources.
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