EBOLA: AFRICAN SHIPPING INDUSTRY UNDER THREAT

EBOLA:  AFRICAN SHIPPING INDUSTRY UNDER THREAT

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

 Soldiers from the U.S.Marines securing the Free port of Monrovia in Liberia during the nations civil war

……………LIBERIA’S ECONOMY DOWN ON ITS KNEES

…………SHIPPING INDUSTRY ,LIBERIA’S ECONOMIC HUB IS WORST HIT

………........LIBERIA’S SHIPPING SECTOR IS SECOND BIGGEST IN THE WORLD

…………WORLD,AFRICA’S ECONOMY UNDER SERIOUS THREAT

…………. WORTH OF LIBERIA’S DOLLAR IN THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET IS BETWEEN $80 - $88 TO $1U.S AS AT PRESS TIME

…………GOOD SAMARITANS DIE IN NIGERIA.

 Liberia’s very existence as a people and even to a very large extent the global and African economy is now facing a serious crisis as the world faces the grim reality of the battle it is facing against  dreaded ebola Virus disease as the hemorrhagic fever bite harder .

In an exclusive investigations conducted by Paedia Express Multimedia in Lagos,Nigeria on development on the serious issue in the quarantine Zone, Liberia, it was discovered that things were really in terrible shape.

A Liberia national and journalist , Mr Frank Awode said that everything was now at a standstill situation in Monrovia with the health sector seriously in dire need as they have only a doctor as against 100,000 people..

He explained that Liberia which has a very vibrant shipping and maritime industry in the world now have a situation where nobody goes to work thus making there economy ground to halt.

He accused Mrs Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson,the Liberian President of doing very little as  Ebola Virus continue to cut down a lot of vibrant human resource potentials of there nation in there prime.

He noted that though every Liberian was now observing a stay at home but that the state was paying them salaries..

Awode laments:”Before the war,a bag of rice was 20U.S. dollars per 50 kilogram of rice but now in the post Ebola era,it is 35 to 40 U.S. dollars in the foreign exchange market”

“The worth of the Liberian dollar in the foreign exchange market is 80-88  Liberian dollar to 1U.S dollar”

“They found oil during  alright and the government was planning to declare to us the level of its discovery in terms of commercial quantity  but with the Ebola Crisis  now that has been put on hold’

“Our shipping industry is massive, once you fly the Liberian Flag it is cheaper and convenient to do so for most sailors and operators in the trade”

He affirmed that the Freeport of Monrovia, Liberia was the gateway of the nations economy as 90 percent of what its people consumes comes in through the port.

As it happens, Liberia, too, conducts ship registration in America. Not 10 miles from IRI headquarters sits Liberia's maritime registry, the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry, in Vienna, Virginia. The West African nation, sandwiched between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, is "home" to more than 509 foreign petroleum tankers, making it the second largest maritime nation on earth. Liberia is a country in West Africa which is rich in water, mineral resources, forests, and has a favourable climate for agriculture, fisheries and farming. Liberia had been a producer and exporting country of basic products - primarily raw timber and rubber. The reconstruction and building of infrastructure and facilities and the raising of incomes in this ravaged economy will largely depend on generous financial and technical aid from donor countries and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in key sectors, such as infrastructure and facilities and power generation.

as at press time this reporter discovered from discussing with several people about the Ebola outbreak why they will not want to help anybody now as they were  not willing to die now.