Godfrey Bivere

While shipping operators in the maritime sector are battling with high interest rate for loans collected from banks and failed promises for assistance in that regards from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), their counterparts in the oil and gas sector are benefiting from a scheme by the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), to aid them to easily acquire vessels.

The Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) model adopted by the NCDMB, according to Ernest Nwapa, its Executive Secretary, takes on about 50 percent of the interest on loans collected from Nigerian banks that charge very high interest rates. Nwapa who disclosed that the fund has risen up to about $200 million, explained that they do not only guaranty the loan taken by Nigerians in the sector who want to acquire tankers, but also take up 50 percent of the interest rate. The NCDMB boss said that the desire of the Board, is to see Nigerians involved in the lifting of the nation’s petroleum products and to this end, some operators in the sector have already taken advantage of the fund to acquire new tanker vessels. He explained that they also control the number of foreigners working in the sector by limiting it to only those with skills that are not available in the country. He noted that they provide such expatriate with identification card to enable them work in the petroleum industry in the country. This he noted has worked well with the provision of identification cards to 250 such personnel. On the contrary, operators in the shipping industry are lamenting their plight as most of their operation has been grounded owing to lack of jobs. Any encounter with operators in the shipping sub-sector of the maritime industry is followed by lamentation of their plight in getting loans for acquisition of ship to enable them participate in an industry dominated by foreigners. Those who are lucky to still have one or two ships in operation, are also not spared from such lamentations, as they would readily tell you of their difficulty in getting shipment even with the Cabotage law in place in the last seven years. Despite the Cabotage law which restricts shipment of all cargoes within the nation’s waterways to vessels owned, crewed and built in Nigeria, foreigners are still having a field day. A group of local ship owners, the Indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), never stopped complaining about the state of their businesses that have gradually died. Following the frustration of not getting jobs, some of them resorted to making their vessels available for illegal jobs to keep them afloat, but the apex maritime regulatory body, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which is supposed to protect them, turned away from them.