….25,000 jobs loss to foreigners

By Godfrey Bivbere

Lagos—Nigerian Licensed Ship-Chandlers’ Association, NLSCA, weekend said Nigeria loses over $15 billion annually to the dominance of chandling business by foreigners due to the inability of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA and the Nigerian Local Content Management Board, NLCMB, to enforce existing laws.

Chandlers are licensed contractors engaged by ship owners and their agents to supply food items, drinks, water, engine, spare parts and other services needed during a trip.

Briefing newsmen in Lagos, National President of NLSCA, Dr. Martins Enebeli, said the nation was also losing 5000 direct employment and 20,000 indirect employment.

He urged NIMASA to focus on its core mandate of safeguarding the sector and stakeholders from those he described as “hijackers.”

NLSCA President also accused terminal operators of denying members of NLSCA access to the ports and taking up the responsibility of providing the ship chandelling services to vessels at their terminals contrary to the law.

According to him, “As I speak to you, there is less than one percent of Nigerians’ participation in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry despite the persistent cry by stakeholders. They deliberately form alliances to sideline Nigerian ship chandlers from participating in the sector.

If we continue to be complacent in ensuring that some of the subsectors in the sector are properly attended to, we would have a system that is violent in nature. The association has met with the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the National Assembly without positive results.”

He called for a standing committee to look into the challenges and proffer possible solutions.