By Ifeoma Ikem

Courier and Logistics Management Institute, CLMI, has urged federal government to look into the courier and logistics sector as it has the capacity to produce three million jobs yearly.

Prof. Simon Emeje, executive chairman of the institute ,disclosed this at its 2019 International Investiture & book presentation/panel discussion conference in Lagos, further stated that the industry’s worth in the country is N1 trillion.

Stressing that the industry has the capacity to produce over three million jobs every year if there is enabling environment, Prof Emeje appealed to the government not to neglect it.

He said, this conference is to make a statement and recommend to government that they should look at this sector, because it is a very big and critical sector.
“If the sector collapses, the country collapses because we are talking about communication here and communication embraces courier, logistics, transport and management put together.
“We have said it severally and repeatedly that these four pillars govern every human being on earth, it’s just that human beings don’t know that these are the things they do every day.
“So our statement is that we want to let government and the society know that this sector is a critical sector that should not be ignored.”
Corroborating, Barr. Adebayo Shittu, former Minister of Communications, noted that CLMI is the only one of its kind worldwide, but sadly was being neglected by government. Shittu, who was later conferred the Life Grand Patron of the institute, however appealed to the government for due and adequate recognition for the institute which would aid job creation and economic development.
“This is the first institute in the whole world which combines logistics, courier, transportation and management. There is none similar anywhere and for me, this is one thing Nigeria is donating to the world. Even as he enjoined other countries to emulate Nigeria in order to address their transportation, courier and logistics issues.

Mr Isichei Osamgbi, former Deputy Director/Head Public Relations at Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, commended CLMI stressing that not only was it very well organized but a performing one that would take the country places given the synergy of its operations and collaborations.

According to him,this collaborations will help Nigeria move forward because it happens at the global stage, where people bring area of specialization together with work force to Nigeria, pulling it to greater heights.
He also expressed optimism in the transportation sector getting better, given that “the present administration of President Buhari is doing so much in terms of road construction, linking cities and ports across the country. We are sure in the near future Nigeria would be a better place with the way they are working.”

He advised everyone to “keep working as a team and partner each other, to enable us realize our objective at the end because we are stronger courier sector together.”