As Nigeria is poised halt granting of waivers to foreigners operating on the nation’s waters in five year time, the outgoing President of the Shipowners Association of Nigerian (SOAN), Engr. Greg Ogbeifun has called for discriminatory consideration of for certain waivers to foreign vessels at the expiration of the five year notice so as to sustain the industry.
Ogbeifun who was speaking in Lagos yesterday on the sideline of the election of the new executives of SOAN said that this should be done after due diligence had been done to ascertain that it was inevitable to enjoy the participation of these people to enable the industry as a whole to perform.
He however submitted that Nigerians had grown tremendously adding that the Nigerian Content Act working with NIMASA had helped tremendously to give opportunity to Nigerians who want to be ship owners.
According to him,” When you have such situations, you have no choice but to allow the participation of foreign vessels as long as they comply with the law of the land that allows them to participate.
“Secondly, if a Nigerian company for instance, has an opportunity of a contract that is only for three months for instance and there are no vessels that are available in country to do that job, they have to go outside to get that ship and you are not going to start changing all the ownership, the registration, the manning of such a ship for three months, if you do that, then the industry itself is going to suffer.
“So, I think there has to be what I call discriminatory consideration for certain waivers after due diligence has been done that is inevitable to enjoy the participation of these people to enable the industry as a whole to perform but I think that Nigerians have grown tremendously, the Nigerian Content Act working with NIMASA has helped tremendously to give opportunity to Nigerians who want to be ship owners”.
Ogbeifun who is also the Managing Director of Starzs Investment Limited added that “The challenge still remain that the fund that is statutorily designed to help in the acquisition of ships by Nigerians, that fund is locked up in NIMASA and the Ministry of Transport and that fund has to be released to be able to allow Nigerian to acquire these ships and be able to take their rightful position otherwise, the opportunity for foreigners to continue will be there”.
He continued,” In the local content fund, ship owners as well as other oil and gas operators contribute one per cent to that fund for the purpose of developing their business. Ship owners contribute two per cent to CVFF for the purpose of growing indigenous fleet but while the Nigerian Content Development Management Board in a very short period of being in existence has been able to begin to disburse their fund to ship owners, it has not happened even in NIMASA or the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund. So, that is the difference and if there is a way the CVFF can be disbursed even through the model that NCDMB is using, it will help the industry as a whole”.
On the need for shipowners to merge in order to build capacity, the SOAN boss said,” Nigerians don’t like partnership. Everybody wants to be CEO, everybody wants to be Chairman even if they have a canoe, they want to be their own Chairman. That is the reality. But having said that, what we do in SOAN is to support each other. If I cannot be your partner, I should be able to come to you to tell me what to do to help me, may be in the area of my technical performance, may be in the area of manning, may be in the area of my organizational set up, may be in the area of my financial management.
“If you are succeeding, what we do in SOAN, if Mr. A is getting it right, Mr. B should go to get ideas from him. So, we are encouraging ourselves to support each other. But if along the line, two or three members see the need to come together, for instance, the issue of global trading ship, that is a platform where two or three members can put their resources together to be able to go into that business. It becomes easier than individuals trying to fight it. But the issue of partnership in the Nigerian sector but I am sure, SOAN is going to pioneer the breaking of this jinx”.
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