The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ship owners

  • Ship owners owe banks $3b

    • Seek removal of waiver clause

    Indigenous shipping firms are owing  Banks a whopping $3billion, the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) has said.

    The group said the inclusion of the waivers clause in the Cabotage Act has added to their problems as it has boxed them into a disadvantaged corner. They, therefore, urged the Federal Government to expunge the clause from the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act (Cabotage Act of 2013).

    The group said the removal of the waiver clause would improve the business of indigenous shipowners.

    Its Chairman, Chief Isaac Jolapamo, told The Nation that about 50 per cent of indigenous shipping firms have been thrown out of business due to poor implementation of the Cabotage Law.

    He said NISA made the same appeal at the stakeholders’ meeting they held with the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar on policy guidelines for the granting of ministerial waivers under the Cabotage Law.

    “The removal will help to address the plight of indigenous ship owners whose businesses have been damaged,” Jolapamo said, adding that it was sad that indigenous ship owners were not doing well in spite of the fact that they started maritime business in the country.

    Its Secretary, Capt. Niyi Labinjo, also called for the removal of the waiver clause, arguing that their members were owing banks several billions of naira. The waiver clause, according to Labinjo, has been made more important by the government at the detriment of implementation of the Cabotage Law itself.

    “I am alarmed at the kind of vessels that are granted waiver in Nigeria. Instead of giving waivers to specialised vessels in consonance with the dreams of the initiators of the Act, we end up giving waivers to anchor handling and tankers, which the Act did not envisage  for waiver.

    “In other climes, they do not leave the administration of waiver to be handled by busy government officials, rather an all-inclusive exercise where applications were received by the agency concerned and forwarded to the stakeholders who do the needful and make recommendations to the implementing agency, which now carry out the recommended action,” Labinjo said.

  • Ship owners lament failure of Cabotage Act

    The Indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has bemoaned the inability of the Federal Government to enforce the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003 (Cabotage Act) to enable its members participate in crude oil lifting.

    Speaking in Lagos, ISAN General Secretary, Capt. Niyi Labinjo urged the government to implement the law so that indigenous companies participate in oil business.

    The country, he said, exports about 2.5 million barrels of oil daily, wondereing why indigenous ship owners are not empowered to lift about 1.5 million barrels.

    The banks, Labinjo said, are willing to give them loans if the government can give them appreciable quantity to carry.

    He cited Brazil where the government approved about 700 agencies, which were issuing certificate of compliance on local content.

    Labinjo said about five years ago, the government trained 200 cadets under the National Seafarers Development Programme, and regretted that since there was not enough shipping companies to work with, the cadets had been rendered jobless.

    He advised the government to provide enough funds for the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom, to enable it produce skilful cadets.

    Labinjo sought proper compliance with the Nigerian Content Act and encouragement to participate fully, in the Cabotage regime.

    “We will continue to press the government. We’ll continue to make our views known about the need for proper compliance with cabotage; about the need for proper compliance with the Nigerian Content Act.

    “If we have a government that insists that this year out of the 2.5 million barrels of oil that Nigeria exports, 1.5 million barrels would be carried by Nigerians and they say, ‘ISAN take this 1.5 million barrels, go and carry it, we will gladly go to the bank; the bank will give us money and we will do it’.

    “So, if you now say, ‘what is our expectation? ’Then, we will now say this year, we will struggle to carry the one million the government has given to us and hopefully by next year, we will do 1.5 million barrels. That is the expectation.

    “That is what has happened in the case of Brazil.Their government insists that you must use local content and the government approves about 700 agencies which were issuing certificate of compliance on local content.

    “So, if you are producing this locally and it is being used by the oil and gas sector, someone will intend to continue to do it,” he said.