The Marine Engineers and Naval Architecture (MENA) division of the Society of Nigerian Engineers (NSE) has advised the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to look inward and seek local professionals that can assist to locally build the ships required for the proposed national carrier.
The proposed shipping line is a joint venture between Nigeria and Pacific International Line (PIL), a Singaporean shipping firm.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the committee established by the Minister had also approached some international financial institutions for loans to enable indigenous ship owners’ secure 60 per cent stake in the proposed shipping line.
However in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily correspondent at the Lagos secretariat of MENA last week, its Chairman, Engr. Charles Otuonye advised that rather that build the required vessels for the shipping line outside Nigeria, the ships should be built locally.
He advised that funds for the 60 per cent Nigerian stake in the Joint Venture should be injected into the Nigerian shipbuilding sector, saying that this would further make the sector to come alive.
Otuonye argued that Nigeria has the required expertise, manpower and the ship yards to build the ships. According to him, the essential parts of the vessel could be imported from abroad while the assembly is carried out in Nigeria.
The MENA chairman said that building ships in Nigeria would stimulate the Nigerian economy at this time of recession, because it would create a lot of jobs for many Nigerians who would contribute in one way or the other in building the ships.
“If we are thinking of founding another national shipping line, our own thinking is that we should be thinking inwards right now, the ships should be constructed here in Nigeria by Nigerians”
“By the time you inject the required sixty per cent into the Nigerian system, it is going a long way. Nigerians should build the vessel, it is not a rocket science, the technology is everywhere, the capacity to nurture those ships is here in Nigeria and we need to bring it together as a nation”
“Today, ships are being built in Nigeria, we have experienced engineers who have worked all over the world, and we have dockyards and renowned naval architects who can develop the ship from conception right to test-running stage”
“If we are not building the engines here, we can import them, this is what other developed nations do, they could bring the main engine from Oregon, some Caterpillars from United States, the compass from Norway, but the assemblage should be done in Nigeria” he said.
According to him, shipping stimulates the economy, there is no aspect of the commercial world that is not involved in shipping; the banks, engineers, lawyers, food ventures, contactors, shoe makers, hoteliers among others, he said they would all stay around the shipyard to get jobs.
He also argued that once the ship construction is done in Nigeria, the agitation of the Niger Delta militants would be put to rest. He noted that once the youths are trained, their God- given potentials would be harnessed and their minds diverted to something useful to the economy.
“It is not something from the blues, it is practicable, but we need to have a government and our leaders must be given confidence that we can do it.
“If Nigeria is building ten vessels and it is going to South Korea, you must have activated jobs over there for the youth while Nigerians wallow in poverty”
“My advice is, if they stating with ten vessels, let them give five to Nigerians to build, by the time we combine it to the five that are bought from outside, we would be in business” he said
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