By Ifeyinwa Obi
THE Group Executive Vice Chairman of SIFAX Group, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, has urged the Federal Government to put measures in place for effective implementation of the Cabotage Law.

He said the non-implementation of the law has negatively affected the capacity of the maritime industry and its practitioners to maximally contribute to the nation’s economic growth.

Afolabi said that the Cabotage law was designed to primarily deepen the participation of Nigerian maritime practitioners in the international maritime business and give them more stakes in the local maritime industry.

He noted that the law makes provisions for domestically owned and Nigerian registered vessels to have exclusive opportunity of engaging in the domestic coastal carriage of cargo and passengers within the coastal territorial inland waters of Nigeria which is presently not a reality in the maritime sector as the Nigerian economy was losing  out greatly.

Afolabi said the law contained vital sections that aims to empower Nigerians to achieve more in the maritime sector, thereby generating revenue to the economy.

Speaking on the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF, he said, “The fund came into being with the promulgation of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act in 2003.”

“It was included in the law that the fund would be derived from two percent deductions of every contract awarded and the funds will be used to help grow the capacity of the indigenous ship owners and also provide financial assistance to Nigerian operators in the domestic coastal shipping in order to acquire vessels.”