The Nigerian Shipowners Association(NISA) has called on the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to quickly rally stakeholders in the sector to find lasting solutions to the myriad of problems in the shipping industry to guarantee the workability of the Local Content and Cabotage laws.
The association further observed that the unregulated issuance of waivers gave rise to the domination of the industry by foreign operators.
NISA stated this, last week, in a press statement while reacting with to the statement credited to the Minister to effect that he is tinkering with the establishment of a National carrier during the courtesy call of the Danish Minister of Transportation.
The President of the association – Otunba Sola Adewumi, said that the Minister must have been quoted out of context because of his conviction that the Minister is a strong believer in the Nigeria project and as such believes in a home grown solution to the problems of shipping with active participation of Nigerian ship-owners and investors in line with the extant laws regulating the industry including the Cabotage act and Local Content regulations which were deliberately and painstakingly promulgated to protect indigenous shipping for national security.
Otunba Sola Adewumi harped on the need for the maritime industry to also access intervention funds like other businesses such as power generation and distribution, infrastructure bank for construction companies and manufacturers with Bank of Industry and other CBN intervention funds at single digit interest rate.
He called on the Minister to urgently look into the disbursement of the CVFF funds and the establishment of Maritime Bank to cater for the specialized business of maritime in Nigeria
