The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said that it is committed to the protection of the interests of the Nigerian shipowners for the reasons of job creation, greater contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of the country, wealth creation and the sustainability of the industry.
Peterside who gave the assurance while speaking at the 2nd annual Nigeria Ship Finance Conference (NISFCOE) in Lagos on Tuesday with the theme, “Advancing Ship & Maritime Infrastructure Financing in Nigeria: Innovative Concepts & Sustainable approaches”, stated that it had become obvious that as Nigeria supports the Nigerian shipowner, it was supporting a lot of persons to remain on their employment, growing tonnage, contributing to the growth of the Nigerian economy, creation of wealth as well as reducing capital flight from the country.
“There is scarcity of foreign exchange, why do we want it to leave our country for things Nigerians can do?”, he queried.
He observed that they were building up local content and protecting the interest of Nigerians as well as working on sustainability as according to him, it might get to a time when foreigners withdraw their services adding that if Nigerians cannot provide those services, it may become a security challenge for the country.
“And so we are mindful of the economic matrix, how it works and we are working extra hard. I don’t think we have had it this good; we have gone out of our way, not just being a regulator, to ensure that the interest of the shipowner is protected.
“We are engaging with CBN, we are engaging with NEXIM Bank, we are having engagements with Afri-Exim Bank based in Cairo, we are having a number of engagements with the Nigerian customs to reduce tariff on the importation of vessels and vessel parts.
“We are determined to work with the Federal Ministry of Transportation to disburse the CVFF because we believe that it has the capacity to crash the cost of fund for the sector. We are also putting in place a lot of institutional framework so that these things will not just be ephemeral but transient, these things will be sustainable.
“The least we ask for is the support of the shipowners and the stakeholders in the sector”, he added.
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