For allegedly ‘insulting them’ and for alleged misrepresentation of facts about the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), some ship owners are currently up in arms against the Minister of Transportation; Mr Rotimi Amaechi.
Our reporter gathered that the cold war is mainly as a result of last week stakeholders meeting the Minister had with ship owners on modalities for the disbursement of the CVFF.
Even though the media was shut out of the meeting, our reporter observed that a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) stormed out of the meeting while lamenting that he came down from Abuja just to waste his time.
He was heard saying, “I will come back next week to drop my resignation letter, before being pacified by one of the staff of the agency to return to the meeting.
Shortly after the stakeholders’ meeting, the president of one of the ship owners’ associations who declined to speak to the press confided in our reporter that the Minister of Transportation actually insulted him and as such he was not in a good mood to talk to the press.
Obviously very angry, he also said: “How can the Minister insult me, he insulted my personality, I am not his mate, imagine him pointing fingers and asking each one of us to mention the number of ship we have, that’s an insult, but I won’t speak until I have had a one- on -one conversation with him” he said.
One issue that the ship owners are also not comfortable with is the exact proceeds from the CVFF.
Also, a prominent ship owner discredited the US$200 million dollars (or about N72 billion) that the Minister said has accrued in the CVFF.
He said, “well that is what the minister said, but for me, it is above that, far far above that”
When asked if he is optimistic that the fund will be disbursed to ship owners, he simply replied “let’s wait and see”.
He also faulted the authenticity of the claim that $200Million had accrued, according to him, “the figure cannot be correct, we need to see the books”.
Recall that, speaking shortly with the press after the stakeholders meeting, the Minister informed that a committee will be set up to be headed by the Director General of NIMASA, he said the committee will come forward with the proposed guideline which will be presented to the National Assembly.
Adding that it is the committee that will determine if it will be a single digits or not,'' he said
Amaechi further stated that as part of efforts to mitigate the risk involved in the disbursement, financial institutions would be involved and the fiscal risk would be borne by the banks involved.
"The banks will be involved in developing the criteria for the disbursement of the fund, so the risk will be borne by the lending institutions", the Minister said.
The minister also noted that the committee would determine the percentage interest to be inserted in the procurement of CVFF.
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