This paper looks at the nature, characteristics, scope, impact, effects of inland water ways and to ascertain the relativity of the inland waterways operation and management on the development of the Nigerian Maritime Industry at large with much focus on the inland coastal shipping (cabotage) Act of 2003.This paper was modeled on the premise that looked at both primary and secondary sources of information in its data collection. The primary data was obtained from various responses to quantitative and qualitative questionnaires distributed to specialists within and out of the area of research coupled with personal observation. The secondary data was extracted from newspapers, newsletters, seminar/workshop materials, technical and economic journals and unpublished materials that were considered relevant to the study. The hypothetical analysis and test was carried out from the primary information and evaluated using both the qualitative and quantitative method (chi-square test) wherewith certain objective conclusions were reached as stated within the body of the work. Recommendations based on the relative operationality of the inland waterways system via cabotage on the entire gradual development of the maritime sector was likewise given, which would make impact if carefully considered and employed over time. Therefore, this paper will collectively examine the impact of inland water ways to the growth and development of the maritime industry sector in particular and the large Nigerian economy in general.

This paper reviews the nature, characteristics, strategies, mode of operations, problems and attendant consequences of delay factors that has hampered the growth, development, productivity and operation efficiency of the port industry over years. Delay factors have been in existence from the period of the pre-concession era to the post concession era. These factors have hampered the productivity of Nigerian ports, thereby preventing the ports from attaining its optimal performance. Even with the introduction of private terminal operators in 2006, even with increased infrastructural facilities by the terminal operators at the beck and call of port's industry, in spite of this, there are still traces of delays in operations of the ports. This research is centered at identifying these delay factors, point out its causative factors, assess the attendant delay factors therein and the extent to which they have caused damage, using River port complex Port Harcourt as case study, the following delay factors were identified. i.Government policy inconsistency ii.Lack of Infrastructural facilities iii.Poor planning iv.Port managerial problem v.Poor dredging vi. Dock workers problemIt was observed that poor planning had the highest impact, followed by government policy inconsistency and infrastructural facilities while others had quite a significant impact on the productivity of the port. However, recommendations were made to help solve completely the issue of delays in the productivity of Nigerian ports.

This paper "A Critical Assessment of Port privatization Policy and Port Productivity in Nigerian maritime Industry" highlights the role of seaports in the socio-economic development of Nigeria; and it further explained port privatization policy which is a globalized concept that involves private sector participation in the operation of the port. The work is aimed at evaluating the productivity of the Nigerian ports since the inception of port privatization policy in Nigeria, and the performance indicators which represents the cargo throughput in Nigeria between 1999 and 2009, which showed that the policy has not been a failure as cargo throughput has increased between 2006 and 2009 than before. Further findings using the Chi-square method of data analysis showed that there is a strong relationship between port privatization policy and port productivity and the revenue generated at the seaports which has increased also, since the inception of port privatization policy in Nigeria. The research findings also showed that, the port privatization policy has been effective in Nigeria but there is still a need for improvement. For this policy to be more effective therefore, there is a need for constant review of this policy from time to time and also the need to make the ports more user friendly by putting in place strategies that will have positive impact in the operation of the port, such as cost reduction strategy and time reduction strategy (which includes time of vessels in berth, and ship turn-round time. Therefore, effort shall be made in this study to review the benefits and challenges of the policy as it relates to ports operational performance and productivity within the confines of the ports-maritime industry at the end of the day.

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This paper reviews the nature, characteristics, trends, and problems associated with shipping line services as regards movement of cargos from one port of origin to other port of destination. Over the years, these critical services have never been encouraging due to some inherent problems associated with ship owners, shipping company, consignees, consignors and the freight forwarders as it relates to cost of freight, which is not in the interest of the importers. The paper also analyses the critical challenges and opportunities of the shipping lines in terms of freight costs and movement. There is need therefore for the study to look also on the problems/ challenges and opportunities of shipping line services in Nigeria which came as a result of the slow rate of growth of the Maritime industry in Nigeria and the need to critically analyse the situation. The maritime industry being one of the world's most international industries is the bedrock of development. Primary and secondary data were used in the work. Interviews were also conducted which where necessary and questionnaires were administered to the respondents. The questionnaires were distributed among the staffs of Maersk Nigeria limited and Ideke Shipping limited. 89 out of the 100 distributed were returned. In analysing the data, comparisons were made by the use of percentages and ratios. Chi-square test of independence was used to determine if there is any significant relationship between the activities of pirates and the profitability of shipping lines. It was then discovered that there is a significant relationship between government policies and shipping operations, between the activities of pirates and the profitability of shipping lines and that adequate cargo handling machines leads to faster turn-round time of vessels.