Nigerian shipowners under the aegis of Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) have once again raised alarm over the continuous denial of indigenous practitioners in the lifting of Nigeria’s crude oil.
The association has subsequently appealed to the Federal Government to grant its member’s 10 percent allocation to lift crude oil, assuring that if government could grant the request, indigenous operators would create jobs for the teeming youths and would retain the proceeds in the nation’s banks.
Factional president of NISA, Mr. Aminu Umar in a chat with Shipping Position Daily said that Nigeria was losing a huge amount of money due to the fact that the foreign ship owners dominate the transportation of the country’s crude oil.
Aminu also alleged that not less than 77 foreign vessels load crude monthly from Nigeria without paying taxes to the Federal Government.
According to him, “Almost 70 to 77 crude oil vessels load oil monthly out of Nigeria. “The foreign ship owners do not employ Nigerians and they do not pay tax. What we are telling the federal government is to give us the support so that we can take at least 10 per cent of the crude oil vessels operating in Nigerian waters,” Umar said.
He added that, “unlike the foreign vessel operators who freight out Nigerian crude oil without paying a dime to the federal government as tax, indigenous ship owners would pay tax which would assist the government in carrying out its responsibilities”.
Also speaking on Nigerian participation in lifting of crude, the president, Ship owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN); Engr Greg Ogbeifun, said if there was a Nigerian fleet in existence, it would have gained among other benefits of having a Nigeria fleet such as job creation, commercial benefit of participating in the trade.
He noted that when the proposed new national carrier is fully operational, Nigeria crude oil will be carried by Nigerian-owned vessels, thereby adding to the nation’s economy in terms of earnings from the freight, and the involvement and participation of the Nigeria’s financial institutions in the development of insurance, banking and other auxiliary services.
Speaking further, Ogbeifun said his association has started engaging the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on refloating of the crude tanker fleet.
“We are going to drive the actualization of the crude tanker fleet vigorously for the benefit of our nation, because that will begin to create the platform the country is looking for to train our cadets in the international trade”, he stressed.
Ogbeifun confirmed that no Nigerian owns a tanker fleet and in the last meeting with NNPC, the corporation had confirmed that no Nigeria Company or individual owns a tanker crude vessel.
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