The President, African Federation of Freight Forwarders, Chief Lexy Nwangwu has called on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to rise up to the occasion and guarantee ship owners who want to acquire ships to enable them do so without difficulty.
Nwangwu who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently stated that since the practice has succeeded immensely in the Aviation sector where he said the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had adopted it, nothing stops same from working in the nation’s maritime sector.
He further called on the nation’s banking industry to intervene in financing the purchase of vessels by Nigerian operators adding that it was time for them to understand that shipping business is a rewarding venture.
He said,”The banking industry don’t understand what it means to own a vessel. Most banks don’t finance anything that floats on water. Their psyche must change, their thinking must change to understand that maritime is the greatest thing that happened to this country, for us to have a coastal areas.
“So, they must be ready to finance, give soft loans of about 25 to 30 years to the operators to be able to buy vessels. And then NIMASA itself must be ready to guarantee operators when they want to buy vessels like what they do in the Aviation industry. You want to buy an aircraft, FAAN will guarantee you, they will give you aircraft and you will be paying. If you default, FAAN will impound the Aircraft and hand it over to the financiers.
“So, NIMASA in the seaport should do the same, be ready to guarantee the purchase of vessels so that it will be easier for the operators. They don’t need to put money, all they need do is to guarantee. There are banks abroad that are ready to fund at 3% to 4% interest rate but they need to be guaranteed that in case of default, NIMASA should be held responsible, not to pay but to recover the vessel and hand it over to the financiers. Once they do that, you will have so many indigenous vessels in this country enough that foreign vessels will fizzle away and we carry our crude”.
On the availability of cargoes to be carried by the proposed Nigerian vessels, Chief Nwangwu opined that there were a lot of business for the Nigerian owned vessels as Nigeria controls about 75% to 80% of the total cargo throughput in the West and Central Africa.
He maintained that now that government was diversifying into the solid mineral sector, there would be solid mineral bulk cargo to be carried also.
“The oil and gas cargo, we produce 2.2 million barrels everyday. If only Nigerian vessels carry our oil alone, we will be comfortable, Nigeria will stop being conduit pipe”, he said.
On the proposed National Carrier, the African Federation of Freight Forwarders ‘ boss posited that the private sector was going to run the National Carrier but with input from government as it was going to provide necessary logistics .
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