Nigerian shipowners have called on the Federal Government to use the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) to set up a Vessel Leasing and Financing Company in partnership with the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC)
Former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr. Raymond Omatseye stated his at a recent shipowners cocktail in Lagos.
He said that the Vessel Leasing and Financing Company should be placed on the stock exchange market. He said that such a company would in – turn, approach international financiers to help acquire vessels and lease to Nigerian shipowners to do business.
Omatseye however expressed fears that such good initiative could be jeopardised because according to him, Nigeria has too many 'briefcase carriers' pretending to be shipowners.
"Government should set up a vessel leasing finance company, what they should do is to use the CVFF as seed money, that company should be placed on the stock exchange where nobody can touch it, all the minister needs to do is to write a guideline to that effect and it becomes law"
"The CVFF should be our 15 percent equity contribution towards EXIM bank financing 80 percent of the vessel.
the challenge is that we have too many briefcase carrying people who are claiming to be shipowners"
"The vessel leasing company just like you lease your cars would set up clear cut guidelines. What we need now is how to get the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council to sign a Government to Government agreement with foreign companies and assure them that the vessel leasing company is on stock exchange and if shipowners do not pay, they would return the vessel. People like us can now start applying for these vessels" he said
Under the arrangement, Omatseye who is also immediate past President of African Shipowners Association and a member of the Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) said shipowners would not to be applying for loan to buy vessels, but to apply for vessels with certain specification which the financing company would buy and hand.
Continuing, he said "Before I left NIMASA we already have five EXIM banks who had expressed interest to set up a Nigerian vessel leasing company, what this means is that when I as a Nigerian wants to buy a vessel, what I would pay for is 10 or 20 percent and the vessel leasing company pays 20 percent, then we can get a brand new vessel"
"The business is there, but we need square pegs in square holes"
"No Navy in the world buy ships again, all over the world; Norway, Britain they don't buy warships anymore, they lease it, if anything happens to these ships the ship owners would face it", he said.
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