The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello has said that an arrangement for the re-establishment of the national carrier for the country has reached the stage where financial involvement will take the centre stage.
Speaking Exclusively to Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently, Bello hinted that the council had had a meeting with the African Export/Import (AfriEXIM) Bank which he said was interested in the project adding that they were having meeting with the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources on carriage so as to see that Nigeria had a national carrier.
“But it is not a government national carrier, it is purely private sector driven. So, the private sector will own it, they will subscribe to it. We have technical partner, PIL in Singapore, they are ready to give 40%, Nigerian investors will get 60% which we can borrow from the bank so that Nigeria can have a national carrier because unless you have ships, then you are pretending to be a maritime nation. It is only when you control the means of transport, that is how you control the economy.
“So, a lot of things , the Minister is a stakeholders’ man, whatever he does, he has a stakeholders’ meeting and from there he does that but also, the only problem with the national fleet is sustainability. It is not only to have ships.
“We are talking also with the Chinese on ship repairs and ship building, it is just like the Aviation, when they want to do their checks, they have to go to oversee, that carries a lot of money but if we have it in Nigeria here, your ship spoils, you repair it here, it will save a lot of foreign exchange. Then our cadets in Oron will have sea time on Nigerian ships and so on”, he said.
He opined that if Nigeria owned the fleet, gradually, it will have six, seven as well engage in the carriage of crude oil because all the OPEC countries have their own carriers saying that it was only in Nigeria that foreigners come and carry is crude.
“What about our banks? They should be part of that, the insurance companies; they should have grown in leaps and bounds since. Sometimes, we are not serious!”, he concluded.
According to him,” The Minister had set up a committee to look at MAN Oron, we, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council are heading the National fleet and we have reached the stage of financials now. We just had a meeting with AFriEXIM Bank which is interested in the project. We were having meeting with the Hon. Minister of Petroleum on that to see that we have a National carrier”.
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