…Set to hold first International Shipping Expo
Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) has said that Nigeria is losing multi billion naira to the protection and indemnity insurance, popularly known as “P&I” insurance in London as a result of failure by Nigeria insurance companies to leave up to expectation.
Vice Chairman of the association, Mr. Eno Williams who stated this during the international press conference organized by the association in Lagos on Thursday, noted that the issue of insurance for ship owners had always been a headache for ship owners in the country.
According to him, “The Nigerian insurance industry has not lived up to their expectation while rendering service. For instance, this ship you are seeing the prototype here got burnt, but as we speak, this month would makes it five years this ship (Niger Delta king) has been down, which is not so in London, they will simply just issue a credit note and the job would have been done within 6 to 8 month. But here it is going to 5 years now and we are losing multi billion naira to the P&I insurance company in London.”
Earlier in his speech, the President of the association Dr. MkGeorge Onyung informed that the association would be organizing an International Shipping Expo with the theme “Ocean Blue Economy and National Development” as he maintained that Nigeria is lagging behind in the comity and country of nations when it comes to ship ownership and maritime business.
He said, “Basically, this executive thought it wise to put together and organize the first of its kind Lagos international shipping expo. In the maritime space, you will understand we have come a long way but Nigeria is lagging behind in the comity and country of nations when it comes to ship ownership and maritime business.
“Also to let the world know that shipping is 90% of global trade. The theme of this conference is the Ocean Blue Economy and National Development”.
Onyung continued, “We believe that we are blessed with a vast ocean and we also know that in the world today, the future is the blue economy because the world is created with two variables; ocean and land and man has not conquered land not to talk of ocean. That is why we the ship owners ventured into this business of utilizing the resources of the ocean to create a global economy that we will be able to tap wealth from the ocean.
“It is going to be a conference that will be held on the 27th and 28th of November, 2019. It will take place at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. It is an international conference which means that we will have exhibition, participation and collaboration from both the international, local and regional participant. We have carefully chosen this theme because the world is looking at the ocean for sustainability.
“We ship owners are not trying to carve a niche for ourselves, but we are trying to contribute our quota to national economy by creating employment opportunities and to that respect, we have decided to organise this conference to open the doors to a lot of investment”.
He added that two things would make the conference attractive namely; cabotage which had been on for over 15 years saying that the conference was going to open doors for collaboration for people who want to collaborate in terms of asset.
In his words, “We must have ship builders, repairers in Nigeria. The industry spend for maritime spread for Nigeria content in the Nigeria oil and Gas industries, within the next five years, it in the region of 3.5 billion dollars and we know that in order to enjoy this benefit to upgrade our capacity, this conference is going to open the doors for collaboration for people who wants to collaborate in terms of assets“.
Photo: SOAN President, Dr. MkGeorge Onyung.
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