Chief Chris Orode is a former Director Inland Transport Service at the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC). He is a renowned Chartered Accountant & Maritime Economist. In this interview with MMS Plus, he pours out his heart on the development of An African Regional Maritime Bank. An initiative which he propagated since his time at NSC.
Read on.
You raised a case for an African Regional Maritime Bank during the just concluded maritime stakeholders’ summit. Can you explain this?
Before I retired from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) I was appointed as the chairman of the team of experts that carried out a feasibility study on the development of a Regional Maritime Bank. I’m a chartered accountant and also a maritime economist and by virtue of this, when the team was set up, I was the chairman. The team was approved by the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) and also the Ministry of Transport. I led the team through several African countries, gathering data and information and a feasibility report was prepared and submitted initially to the Nigeria government through the Federal Ministry of Transport and after this, the report was also submitted to MOWCA.
In MOWCA, the twenty five member countries were overwhelmed with the potentialities of the project. But in Nigeria it took some time because the government at that time did not approve it. It was when the late Yar’Adua’s government came in that I prepared a brief and made a case for the government to approve it.
What were the modalities for this bank?
The bank was to be a Public-Private Partnership bank, although it was using the platform of a Sub regional body which is MOWCA (Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa). MOWCA comprises 20 littoral states and 5 landlord countries. All this while, no government did anything tangible to explore the project, even the recent President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration did nothing to develop this bank.
What are the key issues that the African Regional Bank is to address?
The bank would be able to provide sustainable financing at very cheap interest rate. A unique template, unlike what is obtainable in commercial banks and a long term repayment period tied to it. The funds would be to finance the shipping sector such as; purchasing vessels, port development, maritime auxiliary services, capacity building, etc.
It is a development bank just like any other development bank. The bank would have the 25 MOWCA countries as members while others would be non-voting members. I can tell you that some multinational financial institutions have approved this project. They are prepared to participate and finance it.
The same approach utilized by the Asian Development Bank would be employed for the African Regional Bank. At the Asian Development Bank, nineteen (19) of the countries are non-Asian countries. The American International Development bank also uses the same approach.
While there is no doubt about the benefits of having a Regional Maritime Bank, what steps have you taken to ensure this Bank comes to fruition?
There is a maritime stakeholders’ summit to be organized by the Federal Ministry of Transport next week and I hope I will get the opportunity to explain more about this project. Today, there wasn’t ample time for the DG NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside to understand the issue because I wasn’t afforded sufficient time to explain it. I will also be sending a memorandum to the DG NIMASA, because NIMASA is a key agency in the maritime industry, so they should play a key role in the making sure that the approval is implemented.
When you look at the Nigeria economy and maritime, the potentialities are not fully exploited but I believe that with the current government spending four years, there will be a lot of changes. There are so many good things to be done even in the maritime sector. We hope things will be done. We hope that these wonderful presentations, comments, ideas, and promises would be implemented. Nigeria controls about 70% of the traffic in this region, so Nigeria is positioned to benefit more with the establishment of this bank. The nation will be riding on the platform of the sub-region.
How would the shares of the African Regional Bank be shared between MOWCA member states and private investors?
The shares are 60% for the sub-region and 40% for the international bodies. But of the 60% for the sub-region, 25% is for the 25 countries at 1% each and the other 35% will be based on the traffic controlled. A five (5) year average will be taken to determine the volume of traffic, but Nigeria has about 70% traffic.
This means that Nigeria will control about 70% of the 35% of the shares. The shares will not be exclusive to the government, but in a PPP arrangement. I can tell you that there are Nigerians that are waiting on the wings to bring their fund into this project.
