The federal government of Nigeria has been called upon to as a matter of urgency to assist the Indigenous shipping companies as part of efforts to exploit the potential of the sector.
Speaking on the sideline of the just concluded African Association of Maritime Administrators Conference, held in Abuja, an expert, the Person In-Charge/CEO Fejudam Services Limited, Otunba Olufemi Mark Julius who revealed extensive steps needed to unlock the economic potential of the sector, lamented the problem of poor funding and management bedeviling the indigenous shipping business.
Olufemi said the indigenous shipping companies has not been able to meet up with the necessary vessel specifications.
He further explained that government need to support the indigenous shipping companies more in terms of financing and strict monitoring of the fund to ensure that it was used for what it supposed to be used for.
And that government need to improve more on the local content scheme by making sure that the indigenous shipping companies are truly given the opportunity ahead of the foreign counterpart during project execution.
“For years, the maritime industry in Nigeria has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy. With the population of Nigeria, the maritime industry hold the key to Nigeria’s economic growth and development
“Apart from these, the shipping sector has also been a supportive sector in terms of the economy, employment and social status of some citizens in the country.
“However, the total face out of the single hull vessel trading on Nigeria territorial water brought a lot of huge challenges to most of the indigenous shipping companies in the country.
“The inability of most of them to acquire the required double hull vessel has led to most indigenous shipping companies/owners to be out of business in recent time. Some of them that enjoys the CABOTAGE scheme through the funding from the federal government years ago are no longer in the business because of bad management,” he said
He also called on the regulatory agencies like NIMASA to be strict in terms of vessel that sail on Nigeria waters to avoid unnecessary causalities on sea. Proper compliance must be adhered to for safety reasons.
On improving the potential of the sector, he said: “Regular dredging of our sea port will also encourages more influx of bigger vessels in the country. We lost majorities of bigger vessels with bigger cargoes to our neighboring countries all because of the shallowness of our berth. Thank God now for the construction of the ongoing Lekki sea port.
“We need to have another port in the southeastern part of the country to further boost the economy. A typical example is the Onisha sea port. While the regulatory agency like the NIMASA will need to ensure and encourages safety at the sea most especially, for the foreign vessel,” he said.
