The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola, has urged Maritime stakeholders to give him and his team Sometime, as they are poised to make a difference for the good of the sector.
Mobereola made this remark yesterday at a media stakeholders meeting between NIMASA and Maritime media held in Lagos.
The NIMASA DG who has only spent about four months in office, spoke on a range of Industry issues captured by Transport Day Media that was one of the participants.
On the knotty issue of cadets currently undergoing training at Centurion University, India, the DG stated clearly that the NIMASA was yet to take a position on their fate, as tge agency is concerned about the quality of training they are currently receiving.
“We have not decided to bring those students back home. What we are doing is reviewing how the school has been engaged. Is it in the students’ best interest? Will they be well-prepared graduates who are employable by the industry?” the DG stated.
On the issue of very high insurance war risk premium on vessels calling on Nigeria waters, here is what the DG stated.
“We need International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to be with us because it is a cartel on its own. They are making so much money and would rather keep it as it is even if we have zero privacy, no sea robbery for the next ten years.
“If we don’t force the issue they will continue to charge us but in order to force the issue, we want our international partners to meet these insurance companies and tell them that in the past three years, there has not been piracy, sea robbery and therefore these war risk premiums must come down.
“And if it comes down, it reduces the freight cost for our import and export. We have engaged them, we are taking them to the United Nations and the UN will support us and we would be able to take it to the insurance who would have no choice but to reduce it. They know there is no piracy but they are just benefitting from it”.
On the controversial issue of Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), Mobereola summed it up as follows-
“The CVFF as at today is with the federal government and it is for our own use. It is for the use of the ship owners.
“It is not being touched. It is not a revenue. It is a contribution towards the development of the Nigerian shipping industry and ship owners.
“That is recognised. That is what it is going to be used for. As long as we come back with the fine tuned guidelines on how to use it and when to use it which we have been working on.
“CVFF should move in a way that it is enlarged so that we can leverage on it. The issue of having a Nigerian carrier is not going to happen.
“We should all agree from previous experience that we should not go the way of having a Nigerian shipping line owned by the government.
“We should go the way of the agencies and government creating an enabling environment to encourage the private ship owners to have vessels which we can ascribe as Nigerian flagged vessels and is supported by Nigerians, the government and encouraged to carry Nigerian goods both inwards and outwards, where Nigerian flagged vessels can sail internationally to all the countries of the world which you and I would be proud of and all of that will come to place.
“We are also exploring other avenues in ensuring that CVFF is not only used for CVFF but enlarged to be of benefit to the country and all of that is what we are working on.”
