The National President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Eyis Amiwero called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure proper application of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Act 2007, the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003 and the Nigerian oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act No. 2 of 2010 in order to create massive employment for the teeming unemployed citizens of this country.
In a letter addressed to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari and made available to Primetime Reporters, Amiwero pointed out that since the enactment of the three legislative instruments meant for the development of indigenous capacity in the maritime sector, there was no visible implementable activities in line with the provisions of the Acts.
He noted that Nigeria was yet to find its feet as a result of complete absence of development strategy as contained in various Acts which he said were trigger the activities of indigenous operators and generate employment.
According to him,” Nigeria as a maritime nation needs to speedily develop organizational architecture and responsibility to ensure the continued growth of the Nigerian economy in an increasing, dangerous and competitive environment.
“The three legal instruments hat was enacted to build indigenous capacity and generate employment was left without implementation by the government agency which has adversely affected the growth of the Nigerian maritime sector by the dominance of Multinationals in our maritime trade”.
Analyzing the NIMASA Act, the NCMDLCA boss listed the funding of NIMASA as provided for in the Act, the maritime fund for the development of indigenous shipping and shipping infrastructure, provision of 25% of NIMASA revenue dedicated for maritime fund, the critical function of NIMASA to build capacity in line with Act, the Cargo reserved policy and carriage right for Nigerian indigenous operators as well as development of indigenous ownership and shipping infrastructure as windows provided by the NIMASA Act to empower Nigerians.
On the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act No.5 of 2003 otherwise known as the Cabotage Act, he listed the development of indigenous capacity by the restriction of foreign vessels in domestic trade, restriction of towage, restriction of the carriage of petroleum products, restriction of navigation in inland waters and the restriction for rebuilt vessels as relevant sections provided by the Act to create employment for Nigerians and empower them.
He further went ahead to list the hindrances to the implementation of the Cabotage Act to include waivers on wholly Nigerian ownership, waiver on manning as well as waiver on Nigerian built vessels stating that section 14 (2) provided that,” The waiver system provided for under this Act may be reviewed after five (5) years from the commencement of this Act by the National Assembly”.
Amiwero observed that the waiver system should have been reviewed since 2008 based on the provisions of section 14 (2) that authorized the review of the Act after five years.
He pointed out that the continued existence of the waiver clause would rob Nigeria of domination of freight component by foreign operators, capital flight or huge transfer of foreign exchange out of the country due to dominant power as a result of the waiver, lack of employment for Nigerian operators due to non participation of indigenous operators as a result of the waiver, lack of ownership of maritime infrastructure by indigenous operators as a result of non operation due to waiver and lack of skill due to continued use of foreign operators due to waiver.
He therefore recommended that a National Carrier status be developed and facilitated by NIMASA for the expansion of fleet for the carriage of shared cargo based on the Act.
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