By Godfrey Bivbere

CHAIRMAN and Chief Executive Officer of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), Oladipo Jadesimi has said that the company would soon commence shipbuilding at its facility in Lagos.

In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Maritime Report, Jadesimi noted that LADOL will start from ship repair and grow into shipbuilding.

Asked when this area of business is expected to commence, the LADOL boss said he cannot say for sure but stressed that the process has already begun.

READ ALSO:Oil prices fall as U.S. crude stocks jump(Opens in a new browser tab)

According to him, “We are going into shipbuilding and establishment; we will also have training for ship building persons.

“I am sure that within a couple of years although we have been planning it for a while now.

He said though ship importation is goods since the nation presently do not have the capacity to build ships, government must begin to give emphasis to ship repair that can develop to ship building.

“I think the emphasis should be on ship building though in Nigeria it is obvious we need to import vessels because we cannot build anything like vessels presently.

“There should be more emphasis on developing the shipbuilding industry, we should not lay on our backs on importation alone.”

He noted that the maritime industry could be the biggest source of employment in the country.

In his words, “The biggest resource we have apart from oil and gas is the maritime and I hope that the government will keep on supporting the industry needs.

“I think it is the most important in terms of employment, investment, capacitating and value raising and when we get it right in terms of capacitating, ship repairs, many things  that are the backbone of the entire industry on the value chain,” he noted.