…Mobereola says NIMASA will adopt strategies that will entrench sustainability of the maritime industry vision
Nigeria may be annually losing, as much as $1tn to her non-disbursement of the Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF), Stakeholders told the new Director General, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, on Thursday.
The stakeholders, comprising highly informed industry operators in the Marine and Blue Economy highlighted this in Lagos at the Maritime Stakeholders Group Meeting with the new Director General, Dr Dayo Mobereola.
Taking the bull by the horns, a Maritime Lawyer, Emeka Akabogu, in his presentation titled “Navigating to the Promise Land”, said that the country was losing not fewer than $9 billion, due to a lack of local marine transportation.
“The fishing sub-sector of the maritime industry contributes N282 billion annually to the economy…”
“There are three legs to shipping, fleet expansion, ship repairs, and dry docking and shipbuilding and the country is losing $9 billion annually to the non-participation in International freight services.
“The fishing sub-sector of the maritime industry contributes N282 billion annually to the economy.
“Nigeria’s coastal resources have an estimated capacity of $504trillion. The current realised capacity is $106trillion in export and import on frozen fish is $876million.
“The former Director General, NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, have said that Nigeria loses approximately, $25.5bilion annually to illegal maritime activities and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited loses, $1.35billion on oil bunkering,” Akabogu said.
The revered lawyer noted, that in 2024 alone, the number of registered ships in Nigeria was 4,419 with a total tonnage of, 5.8 billion.
“Summary of the valid registered vessel, 2,136 with a 4.2billion gross tonnage, invalid registered ship, 61, cabotage registered vessel, 1033, with a gross tonnage of 1.9million. The foreign-owned vessel, 18 with a gross tonnage of 125 million” Akabogu said.
He pointed out that the seafarers’ groups had reported (Capt. Alfred Oniye, Secretary General of the Merchant Seafarers Association of Nigeria (MSAN) said that over 80% of our seafarers were unemployed.
He said that the discrepancy was of concern and speaks to the credibility of available data.
He lamented the poor gender representation, adding that out of 6,039 seafarers on the Nigerian seafarers’ register in 2019, only 9.3 per cent which was 567 were women; adding that the former DG NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside had reported this.
Akabogu said that only 26 out of 250 which was 10.4 per cent of the students at the Maritime Academy of Nigeria were females despite the shocking ratio, in June 2023.
He further revealed that Nigeria has around 30 female seafarers with a Certificate of Competency (CoC) who were unemployed, and over 50 were looking for sea time.
Akabogu said that Nigerian seafarers are poorly remunerated. For example, a Nigerian OOW earns an average of ₦150,000 (US\$600) per month, while their foreign counterpart can earn up to 3,000.
“The Nigerian Marine and Blue Economy; The maritime sector is potentially the largest economic sector outside of oil and gas. It is estimated that Nigeria’s untapped blue economy potential is valued at $296 billion (NIMASA, The Africa Blue Economy Alliance (ABEA)).
“Experts also estimate that our maritime sector can generate N7 trillion annually and 2 million jobs over 5 years. This is largely because of our vast marine assets of the longest coastline in West Africa, stretching over 892 Km from Badagry to Bakassi, with a total shelf area of about 42,000 km2 (UNEP, 2014).
“Our territorial sea extends from the coastline to a breadth of 12 nautical miles, the continental shelf extends about 50 miles making us one of the eight countries with a continental shelf that allows for the extension of our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) from 200 miles to a further 150 miles.
“These are in addition to our nearly 4,000 Km of inland waterways,” Akabogu further, said.
Earlier, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Mustapha Hassan, had posited that more was required from the NIMASA management, especially for the successful implementation of the Cabotage Act.
Hasaan specifically pointed out that the Cabotage Act had not been effective, since its enactment.
He stressed the need for greater inter-agency collaboration in the cabotage regime, to address issues of boarding and inspection of vessels, particularly with the automatic identification system AIS.
Hassan explained that there was a lot of money for Government to make in the implementation of the Cabotage Act.
He acknowledged the readiness of the Nigerian Navy to support NIMASA to treat these cases expeditiously in the next months.
Speaking in the same vein, former Director General of NIMASA, Mr Temisan Omatseye, noted that the agency was established with the core mandate of promoting, protecting, and providing an enabling environment for indigenous ship owners to grow their vessels.
Unfortunately however, according to him, the current NIMASA leadership would not be able to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) as timely needed.
Omatseye observed the grey area between the dictates of financial regulations guiding the funds disbursement not being in tandem with other banking and finance institutions’ regulations.
He equally noted that for the CVFF, NIMASA was doing the risk assessment even though the disbursing does not allow an outsider to do the risk assessment, as it negates the law that binds the funding.
Thus, according to him, the law says there should be a CVFF and the fund is to be disbursed in line with the guidelines as issued by the Minister of Transportation and approved by the National Assembly.
Omatseye said that CVFF was established by the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003 adding that the fund was established to develop indigenous ship acquisition capacity, and to provide financial assistance to indigenous domestic coastal shipping operators; and asked how far these noble objectives had been met.
The Chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haastrup, urged NIMASA to utilise the 0.5 per cent Stevedore fee to train the stevedore workers.
Haastrup said that although the terminal operators engage the stevedores with skeletal training, the Government was in the best position to engage them in industrial training to avoid fatalities and other accidents while discharging their duties.
A Maritime Lawyer, Mr Adedoyin Afun, urged NIMASA to reduce duties on vessel acquisition to enable more vessels to get registered.
“You can be rest assured that all this points will be considered…”
In his response, the Director General, NIMASA, Dr Adedayo Mobereola, commended the efforts of the stakeholders and all the past Director Generals of the administration, including those who were absent.
Mobereola said that he would work towards achieving the goals of both the President and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy via a four-year Master Plan.
He gave assurances of carrying along, all the stakeholders, adding that his administration would prioritise the issues of ship registering and gender-inclusive
“You can be assured that all these points will be considered and NIMASA will put in strategies that will be a sustainable plan for the maritime industry.
“Our today’s knowledge sharing will not be wasted and we will call on you where we need clarification to implement all the points raised.
