The Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) has said that shipowners in the country are facing hard times and this has hampered them from holding further editions of the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) since the last edition held in 2015.
NIMAREX is the brainchild of NISA, borne out of desire to showcase Nigeria’s enormous maritime potentials to the rest of the world.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily exclusively in Lagos last week, National Publicity Secretary of NISA, Engr Emmanuel Ilori said that Nigeria’s maritime sector is at its lowest ebb and shipowners are having challenges meeting up with financial obligations. He said there was need to revisit the funding structure of the maritime sector with the establishment of a maritime bank.
Ilori lamented that the Nigerian maritime system has worked against ship owners, and that the lending rates at 25% interest has allowed foreign ship owners to push them out of business. He said that ship owners are equally confronted with other unfavourable operating environment which has put a lot of stress on the ownership and operation of ships in Nigeria.
He assured that the association is struggling to come up with a re-branded NIMAREX that would respond to the needs of the industry.
“NIMAREX is not dead, but the challenge is that the industry itself is at its lowest ebb, and what we are trying to do now is to find where the growth of the industry is. We were organizing NIMAREX at a time when we had a boom in the maritime industry”
“Now, there are challenges within the industry that we need to address, that is why we want to come up with a re-branded NIMAREX that would respond to the needs of the industry. At the moment we have challenges in the industry and that is the main priority at this point in time”
“The shipowners came to the rescue of the sector by investing in ships, but the system worked against them, let’s look at the funding of the system, at over 25percent interest with other unfavourable operating environment, it has put a lot of stress on the ownership and operation of ships in Nigeria”
“What we are now saying is that there is a need to revisit the funding structure of the maritime sector, we need to have a dedicated maritime bank that would provide fund at single digits that would provide opportunity to actually drive the development of the industry, not just ship owning alone”
“Don’t forget that we need to own ships in Nigeria, operate ships in Nigeria, built ships in Nigeria and to have the technical capacity including human to drive the industry. So we are saying that there is a need to be a fundamental change in the funding system of the Nigerian maritime industry, that way, Nigerians can compete favourably with foreign counterparts”
Shipping Position Daily recalls that NIMAREX has ran into murky waters since 2015 largely due to the leadership tussle with the fold of the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA). Apart from this, the last edition of the programme in 2015 held under the organizing committee headed by Mr. Ayo Adedoyin was adjudged by critical maritime stakeholders as a major flop.
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