There are indications that the 2015 planning committee of the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) may be experiencing serious financial challenges, even as the committee has said that it has not received enough financial commitment from relevant government agencies in the maritime sector.
Chairman of the committee; Mr. Ayo Adedoyin who gave this indication in Lagos on Tuesday at a meeting said that the agencies were apprehensive as the Federal Government has ordered a 20% slash in the budget of all its ministries, including transport ministry.
There are indications that the 2015 planning committee of the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) may be experiencing serious financial challenges, even as the committee has said that it has not received enough financial commitment from relevant government agencies in the maritime sector.
Chairman of the committee; Mr. Ayo Adedoyin who gave this indication in Lagos on Tuesday at a meeting said that the agencies were apprehensive as the Federal Government has ordered a 20% slash in the budget of all its ministries, including transport ministry.
Adedoyin who was represented at the meeting by a member of the Committee; Mr. Vincent Abulu however appealed to stakeholders in the maritime sector, especially Nigerian shipowners, to take up exhibition booths at the expo to help the committee to generate funds.
Speaking on the committee’s state of finnaces, Adedoyin said, "We are having problems with funding from our funding partners which are mainly the government agencies; NIMASA and Ministry of Transport as a whole and other agencies"
"There is a directive from the Federal Government that all agencies should cut down their budget by not less than 20%; as you are aware, the budget for the Ministry of Works was cut down from N11billion to N100billion, this is going to affect us seriously" he lamented.
Adedoyin also noted that the committee has received several complaints from industry players about past editions of NIMAREX which according to them have not really imparted positively on their operations.
He added that two Memorandums of Understanding will be signed at this year’s expo and that a post-NIMAREX round table meeting with heads of maritime parastatals will be held with view to solving some of the challenges confronting the sector.
He said:"The feelers we got across the board in the industry is that past NIMAREX editions, good as they were, people have complained that they have not derived enough benefits, even as we have told them to be patient"
"We have decided to refocus and rebrand it and this is why we said it would be trade-base, we are marching the foreigners with the local players here, one of the target is to sign at least 2 MOUs on the platform of this year NIMAREX, already, we have one in the kitty with Belgian chamber of commerce in Nigeria"
Adedoyin said that NIMAREX 2015 is slated for April 27th 2015 and that the committee has no intentions of shifting the dates further.
He called on Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) and its members to arrange and pay for their booth otherwise they will not have exhibition booth at the expo.
Speaking on the post-NIMAREX round table with chief executives in the industry, he said, "a major innovative of this year's expo is the post-NIMAREX event which will attract CEOs round table, it is an event with which we want to gather as many CEOs and heads of parastatals, we want to put them in the same room and discuss what affects the industry".
"We have written to those targeted to give us what is affecting the industry, at the end of the parley, a position paper will be drawn and submitted to the federal government as NISA's input" he said.
Meanwhile, President of Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association, Capt Niyi Labinjo has appealed to shipowners to take up booths at the 2015 expo in order to avoid the embarrassment of empty booths.
He allayed fears raised by the NIMAREX chairman, even as he assured that NIMAREX is one of the products of NISA.
He said that now that NISA has its own secretariat, the NIMAREX secretariat will be moved out of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council where it had been squatting, down to the new NISA secretariat.
"NIMAREX is our baby and that is why we must salvage it now that it is crying and in need", Labinjo stated.
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