Barr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara is the Principal Partner of the Maritime and Commercial Law Chambers based in Lagos and the Secretary of the 2015 NIMAREX Planning Committee. In this interview with our Correspondent, he bared his mind on the preparation for the 2015 NIMAREX edition, the achievements of the NIMAREX in the past four years, development in NISA and other matters connected thereto. Excerpts;
You are the Secretary of the NIMAREX 2015 Planning Committee. Can you let us know your preparations so far for this year’s event?
NIMAREX 2015 is the 5th edition in the series of NIMAREX event in Nigeria. NIMAREX event started in 2011. NIMAREX like you know is the project for the maritime industry in Nigeria which was initiated by NISA- Nigeria Ship owners’ Association. NIMAREX has grown today to be a project of the Nigerian maritime industry. It is an international event that holds every year where Nigeria exposes her maritime potentials to the entire world.
We show our potentials for ship building and ship repair, we show that we have generative industry potentials, that we have potentials to produce iron and steel which is the necessary raw material for building ships. We show we have the Cabotage Act that will enable companies that are established in Nigeria to build ships for instance, to have enough business for ships that are built in Nigeria because that law is meant to empower in-country operators to trade exclusively in the territorial waters of Nigeria and this is virtually a very empowering law because it has a provision under section 5, the Cabotage law I mean, that all lifting of petroleum products from one point within the Nigerian territorial water to another, from well head or a rig to a platform within an off-shore Nigerian territorial waters, must be handled or carried by a Nigerian built vessels, a vessel owned by Nigerian and a vessel crewed by Nigerian and operates in Nigeria.
So, that alone is enough to encourage shipping in Nigeria because Nigeria spends over N2 trillion every year paying for services related to lifting of the Nigerian crude oil.
And of course, 2015 edition of NIMAREX, was earlier scheduled for 29th of March to 1st of April, 2015. A new date has been scheduled following shift in the election time tables in Nigeria. So, NIMAREX now takes place between the 26th and 29th of April, 2015.
We are expecting the whole world to come to Nigeria because NIMAREX is a trade platform where people, foreign industries that have capital to invest will meet in-country operators that have opportunity for investment. For instance, companies outside Nigeria that have finances and looking for investment opportunity in the maritime sector will find such opportunity in partnership with Nigerians and they can build ship yards here for repair of ships, for building of ships and other related industries like I just mentioned iron and steel.
So, preparation is in top gear for the 2015 NIMAREX edition and so many companies in-country and abroad has indicated their preparedness to attend NIMAREX. This year’s NIMAREX event has that theme, “Nigeria: Regenerating Economic Growth through the Maritime Sector”. We are looking forward to in keeping with the tradition of NIMAREX to have Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to chair the event.
We are working very hard, a lot of companies have shown interest in sponsoring our NIMAREX event, we believe that this year, we bringing quite a number of things to the table. We are going to have a CEOs’ round table where issues affecting the maritime industry will be looked at from different perspectives, whether you are a financier, whether you are a government agency in-charge of the security of the waters, whether you are like the NPA- the landlord of the ports, then the terminal operators, they should tell us what the problems are that we are not getting right. Do we need power infrastructure in the ports? What is the state of power in the ports system right now? How do we improve on that? Customs, what are the challenges that they face? These are all part of maritime in revenue generation and collection.
Just name it, every player in the maritime sector, ship owners; do they have issues with the pollution of the waters? Do they have issues of security? Just name it, any problem or issue that the Nigerian government must know about and work on to make the Nigerian maritime industry investor friendly, to create an enabling environment for investment in the maritime industry; this is one of the things we want to bring on the front burner this year.
Get the CEOs of big companies, big government corporations, government agencies, Ministries, they come on board, they discuss these issues and then we build on that, we won’t just go home, this is something different we want to do this year. When these issues are placed on the front burner within the platform of NIMAREX, then we have to organize series of workshops as a build-up to the next NIMAREX event where these issues will be dissected, analyzed and solutions proffered to the government and then we work with government to ensure they are implemented in phases.
What would you point out to be the achievements of the NIMAREX in the last four years of its existence as an industry project?
In the last four years, NIMAREX has succeeded in creating awareness about the Nigerian maritime potentials to the entire world and that is reflected on the number of foreign participants which has been on the increase every year. That is one and we are going to leverage on that to see that it is beyond creating awareness.
We want to be practical in many aspects of this year’s event, for instance, we are looking at creating a platform for people who have identified themselves as possible Joint Venture partners to go to the platform created by way of small offices and hold preliminary discussions with a view to executing MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) for implementation later.
We also think that it is a platform where people could bring their maritime disputes and sit back and have a process of settlement by way of mediation or arbitration. I mean for people who do not relate with each other because business has gone sour, trade disputes. They could come to the platform and start again. We create a platform where we could identify such companies, we can create a platform where we can make them shake hands for the first time and then start the process of doing business together again. That is one of the things we are bringing to the table.
You said that NIMAREX had succeeded in bringing in a good number of foreign participants. But in one of the Dailies today, a stakeholder came down hard on the past NIMAREX Planning committees over their inabilities to attract foreign investors to Nigeria through the programme thereby scoring them very low. What is your take on this?
First and foremost, I don’t think that such a position should be a discouraging position. I think on the contrary that it should be something to pick courage from and work harder. If NIMAREX event in the past had gone very high or even hundred percent, then you probably won’t have us working as hard as we are working today.
So, we know that empires are not built in one day. People are looking at NIMAREX from the perspective of comparing them with other international events not remembering that NIMAREX is just 5 years old. So, 4 years on, I believe that NIMAREX has had some positive impacts, it may not have been as positive as expected but Rome was not built in a day. 5 years on this year, we are trying to leverage on what the past editions of NIMAREX had achieved and consolidate on that. That is why I told you that for the first time, we are having a CEOs round table where people in government and people in the private sector, in-country and foreign will first talk and from there we will organize talk shows and workshops that will produce a document that will serve as a blueprint and then we will want government to have the blueprint implemented.
I don’t see that comment as being too hard rather it is drawing attention to the things we should do. We are picking courage from it. That is how I see it.
What are the foreign investors or companies you are expecting to see in this year’s edition of NIMAREX?
They are so many, we won’t mention their names at this point. Don’t forget, NIMAREX is two months away from here. This is February; you have the whole of March and the whole of April, nearly two and half months away. So, you don’t start counting your chickens before the eggs are hatched. Between now and two and half months time is quite a long time, you will see more companies. You don’t rule out the possibility of maybe one or two companies that have shown interest now for some good reasons saying that they may not participate and you see more showing interest to participate. So, if you begin to say the number is this, we may be underestimating the number of people that will come.
In the past four editions, NIMAREX has not been able to bring the President of this country to this all important event knowing how important the maritime industry is to the nation especially now that we are talking of the nation falling back on the potentials of the maritime sector to make up for the dwindling oil prices in the international market. What efforts are you making in getting Mr. President to attend this year’s event personally and not sending a representative?
I don’t want to look at what has happened in the past in terms of the presence of the President. I wasn’t part of the past NIMAREX Planning Committee. For the first time, I am in this Planning Committee but there is something we must not loose sight of, sometimes, a programme of this magnitude is scheduled and something extra ordinary happens and you see the President attending one in preference to the other, that does not show that the maritime sector is not as important as that but perhaps, something must have happened that will give priority to the other event that he decided to attend, but am aware that all the past events were chaired by past Heads of State.
Obasanjo has been on the NIMAREX platform, this year; we are working to get the President come to the platform of NIMAREX. You can look at the theme, for the first time you can see a theme that is practically looking at the maritime sector replacing the oil and gas industry in terms of revenue generating aspect of this country.
So, it is a very important event and government is aware of it. The Federal Ministry of Transport is at the apex stakeholders in this event. NIMASA is there fully represented, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council is there, all the big parastatals that have one thing or the other to do in the maritime industry is fully represented on the Committee and all assurances we are getting is that the President will be there and we are working towards that.
I understand that this event goes with an exhibition. I also know that events like this in other climes, they use it to show case their ingenuity, what they have been able to achieve it the sector by their own people. In the case of NIMAREX, do you think we have the potential to exhibit our ingenuity in the maritime sector?
That is what we are working on. Maritime is not a local industry, maritime is an international business. You have the financial institutions playing their part, you have ship owners playing their part, you have the equipment manufacturers playing their part, you have service providers of various forms playing their part, and you have logistics service providers playing their part. All of these people, you will see at the event this year and you will see even some services that are not purely maritime this year.
That is to show that this is Nigeria, you will see some aspects of the products that will be in display this year reflecting Nigeria as a sovereign country with its own varied cultures, tradition and all that. We are going to have a lot of products there but don’t let me begin to mention some of this products. I invite you to be there as always this year and see for yourself and report and tell the world what you have seen. But surely, you will not be disappointed.
You talked about NIMAREX being an initiative of NISA and with this alleged financial crime involving the President of NISA that is threatening the association currently and its effects on the public. What impact do you think this will have on this year’s edition of NIMAREX?
There is an allegation that the, well would I say the President or would I say the suspended President , I am not a member of NISA, you can see that because I am not a member of NISA and I am the Secretary of this body, I do not know the politics that goes on in NISA and NIMAREX is quite insulated from NISA, whatever happens in NISA is not affecting NIMAREX at all because in my introductory remark, I made it clear that NIMAREX was an initiative of NISA but it has grown to become a maritime industry project with all the stakeholders. You have the Master Mariners, you have the training institutions, you have the security agencies, you have maritime security organizations like NIMASA, Shippers’ Council to protect the interests of the shippers, you have NAPIMS, you have NNPC, you have the banking institutions and all the players in the port system, the port terminal operators, you have NPA, you have the Maritime Arbitrators and other arbitration bodies, just name it.
It has become an industry project. So, whatever happens in NISA will not in any way affect NIMAREX. NISA is NISA NIMAREX is NIMAREX. It was just their idea for which we thank them. I mean somebody will initiate an idea. You can see the Federal Ministry of Transport and all the government parastatals there all working towards the success of this year’s NIMAREX.
What promises do this year’s NIMAREX hold for the foreigners who may have interest in attending the event?
We have told them to come, build ship yards in Nigeria, help revive the iron and steel industry that is moribund in Nigeria because here, we can generate all the raw materials to construct your steel and there is a lot of opportunities. Your ships have business to do in Nigeria, trading within the Nigerian waters even outside, we want international finance institutions to work with foreign companies that are coming, make money available and build these ships in Nigeria, establish ship yards in Nigeria, employ people, develop the iron and steel industry in Nigeria, employ people.
Foreign companies should come and give us alternative source of energy to power our port system and the maritime industry. That is what we are asking the world to do in Nigeria.
