The Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) has said that there has been a steady increase in the level of investments and freight earnings from the maritime sector. The association consequently agreed with the 5% maritime growth which was forecast by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) last week.
President of NISA, Alhaji Aminu Umar in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos said that commercial banks in Nigeria are now ready to finance Nigerian ship owners, unlike what was obtained during the economic recession of 2016 when banks stopped lending to shipowners.
He added that foreign fund managers from Europe are also coming into Nigeria and talking about funding maritime assets in the country.
Umar said that the maritime sector could achieve 5% growth for 2018/2019 and forecast by NIMASA and possibly surpass it.
"Based on what we have seen since the beginning of this year, we believe we can surpass the 5% growth forecast, if not the double digit, we believe it would be close to the double digit in the maritime sector"
"The foreign reserve of the country has gone up, this shows a positive impact in the economy which means that now, our banks have the funds to be able to fund shipping, we have seen positive impact on the banks because they are already now talking about funding a lot of maritime assets, so in my own opinion, the outlook looks very positive"
"Two years ago, banks do not even entertain you talking about funding, we are now seeing a lot of positive investments, a lot of private equity funds are now coming to invest in maritime assets, we have seen foreign funds managers who are coming from Europe and are also talking about funding maritime assets here. We believe the outlook would be great for this year and 2019"
"For the past two years, the freight earnings have been down since 2016, but we are looking at it now that the freight earnings is already going up, in this January activities have improved"
Umar observed that the world maritime situation is improving, not only in Nigeria but globally.
According to him, a lot of ship owners are already looking at investing again in Nigeria because the freight rates are going up.
"We believe 2019 would be the peak in freight and maritime earnings’’.
Shipping is connected to import and export and the growth of the economy", he said.
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