The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), has called on the Federal Government to show enough political will and provide the necessary incentives for shippers to make the port a hub of maritime activities in the sub-region.
Its Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello said the country lost $25 billion to foreign ship owners between 2015 and 2017 adding that over $9.08 was paid as freight for dry and wet cargoes to foreign ship owners in 2015 due to the absence of Nigerian-owned fleet plying the international route.
The NSC boss said that the trend had been recurring over the past few years, adding that in 2016, over $7.55 billion dollars was estimated as opportunity loss.
According to him, $8.60 billion was freight opportunity loss from import and export of dry and wet cargos in 2017.
“As a result of this the Federal Ministry of Transportation through the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, set up a committee for the Nigerian fleet implementation,” he said.
According to him, the committee was to examine the possibility of using existing shipping companies to run a Nigerian fleet and provide guidelines on procedures of establishing a shipping company.
He said that the ministry of budget and planning played an important role in fiscal policy direction of government..
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