The Federal Government has once again reiterated its commitments to ensure that the country re-floats it’s national shipping line.
This is even as President Muhammadu Buhari has given the go ahead for the financial and performance audit of the entire maritime sector in order to ascertain why the sector was docile for several years.
Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi at a maritime technical summit organized by the Association of the Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) yesterday reiterated that the national carrier would be coming up by June 2016.
Amaechi however vowed not to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) as it is being expected by many Nigerian shipowners. He said that the money would not equally be used for the floating of the national carrier.
Rather, the minister said that government would supervise a partnership between foreign investors and shipowners in Nigeria to ensure successful take-off of the process.
Confirming the performance audit which he said would kick-off soon, the minister said that auditors have already been employed to begin the process that will cut across all sections of the maritime industry.
“I have been given an approval by the President to carry out a performance audit of the maritime sector, this is to ascertain why we are not where we are supposed to be and how much we have invested into the sector, who is with the money and what is the way forward”
“I have also given myself a target that by June 2016 we should be talking about concluding our plans on the process of floating another national carrier”
“I have consulted experts and auditors to advice in the regard”
“When the performance audit is over, I will not make the decisions alone, I will sit with the professionals in the industry and share this view with them” he said.
The minister said that the government was being careful with the CVFF in order to avoid past experience where people collected from the funds and never refunded.
He cited that same situation is currently prevalent in the aviation sector where the Federal Government had earmarked N230billion for developing indigenous capacity and none of the beneficiaries have so far paid back anything.
“I will not disburse the Cabotage fund, I don’t have the guarantee that anybody will refund the money, they are yet to refund the one government disbursed in the aviation sector. I have not seen anybody who have refunded and the money spent on the aviation sector is very huge, 230billion was approved”
“What I will do is help Nigerians partner with foreigners to establish a national carrier and they must tell me when they will refund the money” he said.
Amaechi assured that by next week, he would call a meeting of the maritime professionals and the ship owners and set up a group that will move the national carrier forward for action.
Also speaking at the event, President of AMES, Eng. Charles Uwadia noted that the present failure in the maritime sector is due to lack of in-depth technical input in maritime policies and their implementation in line with international best practices and realities.
Speaking in line with the theme of the event tagged: ‘The Challenges of the Maritime Transport Industry of Nigeria: the perspective of AMES, Engr. Uwadia said the summit was designed to profile solutions to the ills in the maritime sector.
He promised that his association, AMES will assist the transport minister in the proposed performance audit of the maritime sector.
Engr. Uwadia expressed the association’s opinion that there is need for a holistic review of the Nigerian maritime human capacity development.
“The decline in standard, quality and profitability of the ships of Nigerian flag can be traced to their poor technical standards occasioned by the owners’ reluctance to comply with national and international standards and regulations”
“This association has members who are technical professionals, trained in maritime operations, management and technical policy formulation, as well as maritime technical regulations compliance and verification”
“In consideration of these challenges, we are here to share our experience with you in order to move this strategic maritime industry forward”, Uwadia assured.
The summit was attended by notable dignitaries including: former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Oloruninbe Mamowora, former NISA President, Chief Isaac Jolapamo, President of Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) Engr. Greg Ogbeifun among other maritime professionals.
Discussion about this post