The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi has assured that the funds earmarked to empower Nigerians acquire vessels under the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) was intact.
Akpobolokemi who made this known while interacting with the maritime reporters in Lagos stated that the agency had developed modalities for the collection of the fund and that disbursing banks had also been selected.
According to him,” the first recipients have been shortlisted and sent to the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMOT) for approval. We are confident that in due time, the operators would start accessing the fund “.
“I wish to state at this juncture that NIMASA as a government organization is statutorily not empowered to utilize all or part of the CVFF in its custody. These monies have been in our banks and I wish to authoritatively tell you that the monies are intact”.
He further disclosed that part of the success story the agency had recorded was the development of structures for the implementation and enforcement of the Cabotage regime and the creation of a special register for cabotage vessels which as at the last counts, hundreds of vessels had been registered.
“It is our sincere commitment and pledge to consolidate on these modest achievements in the next four years”, he said.
