The Nigerian Shipowners’ Association (NISA) has declared its readiness to partner with the Federal Government of Nigeria on job creation for the unemployed Nigerians in the Nigerian Maritime industry.
The President of the NISA, Engr. Aminu Umar who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Lagos on Wednesday said that the association intended to achieve this in a meeting it would hold with the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the new Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside where it would draw their attention to the maritime sector as an alternative to the dwindling oil revenue.
Umar while acknowledging the fact that there was a shortfall in the oil price and that the exchange rate was biting hard on the economy however recalled that the freight earnings could be an alternative source of revenue for the government should the Federal government get its acts right.
“As Shipowners, we are more concerned about the freight which is the earning which we earn when we export products. If you look at the oil and gas sector, it is like you talk about the crude oil, the crude oil today which is being taken out of Nigeria, I give you a little bit of statistics, there is about 70 to 77 crude oil vessels that carry crude every month out of this country and none of these vessels that are loading are owned by Nigerians and if you check a freight of a crude tanker, the freight is about $4 million. $4 million multiplied by 70 or 77 can tell you the total freight that these shipowners that come to load crude who are not Nigerians make. They don’t employ Nigerians, they don’t pay tax in Nigeria, actually that money don’t even come through our banks, our insurance don’t even charge anything, they add no value.
“And what we are telling government is look, give us the support so that we are not asking to take over 100%, even if we take 100%, it is still legitimate because we are Nigerians, at least let us have 10% of the 70 vessels. If we take 10% or 20% of it, this money will come through our banks, that means that this $4 million multiplied by 70 vessels have come as Dollar earned in this country, we would have generated money in this country, we would have been paying taxes, income taxes would have been paid to any state where your company is situated, which is not done”, he said.
The NISA boss described the loss freight as a loss that government was incurring due to non participation of Nigerian shipowners in crude oil carriage saying that those leakages though legal in nature could be blocked through effective and efficient partnership of the association with the government.
He continued,” The product side, we have so many as you all know, you have been seeing it on newspapers, all the products we are using, petrol, gas, kerosene are all imported and all the freight earnings from all these products that come here, there is zero participation for any Nigerian. The reason is that the policies sometimes do not support us, the policies if government does not support the Nigerian Shipowners.
“What we are saying which under the Nigerian Shipowners, we are going to champion, we will also discuss it with the relevant government agencies is to say, give us the support, create conducive environment so that investors, Nigerians will invest, they will create jobs, they will employ Nigerians, we pay taxes, this freight will be coming to this country”.
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