By Godfrey Bivbere & Agnes Obiobo

Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Accepters Nigeria Ltd., Alex Peters, has said that the free fall of the nation’s currency will slow down the growth of the maritime industry.

Peters explained that the naira depreciation will increase the cost of items required for the industry. He noted that the cost of acquiring a N20 million ship before the depreciation would no longer be enough afterwards.

The marine engineer who is also the Honounary Secretary of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, IMAREST, pointed out that a ship buyer would have to pay the difference between what the original cost of the naira and the current cost.

Peters stressed that the same thing applies to other areas of the industry like, importation, shipping of goods, insurance etc, because transaction in the industry is dollar dominated.

According to him, “It will slow down the growth of the maritime industry in many ways. If we say we want to increase the Nigerian tonnage for instance and you have just arranged N20 million dollars to buy a ship, just at the point you are to do that the depression sets in.

“The N20 million you set aside in naira terms will no longer be enough. You have to cough out more money to buy the ship and therefore you may not be able to do that immediately which is a draw back.

“Of cause the maritime industry is very capital intensive. Almost all accept of the industry is dependant on foreign exchange.”

He stressed the need for government to do all it can to stabilise the naira. It is unfortunate that our economy was all oil dependent, so something happens to the oil price and all of us begin to shake.

“We must begin to diversify our economy more rapidly, the federal government has been fighting to diversify the economy, if there were to industralisation were we are doing most of the manufacturing then all these things would not happen.