The Chairman of the Nigeria Ship Registry, Engineer Emmanuel Ilori, has said that unfriendly business environment may have affected ship registration in Nigeria.
Ilori, while reacting to why Nigeria shipowners prefer to register their ships abroad rather than in the country, stated that the attraction of any ship owner to any ship registry is how business-friendly that ship registry is.
According to statistics from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2020, about 265 ships with 6,485,000dwt owned by Nigerians were registered in foreign registries such as in: Liberia, Marshal Island, Singapore, and Panama, among others.
Meanwhile, the size of the Nigerian fleet by flag registration in the same year stood at 726 ships with 4,526,000dwt while African fleet stood at 7,433 ships.
Ilori noted that there are so many factors that make the Nigeria ship registry not the preferred choice, even as he said the registry is working hard to ensure the Nigeria ship registry is attractive to ship owners.
According to him, “as you know, the ship registry is very important to the maritime industry of any nation, so it’s either we have an open registry or close registry, but the ship registry is at the heart of maritime administration and as you know the attractiveness of any ship owner to any ship registry is how business-friendly that ship registry is; whether the administration is business-friendly or not, and Nigeria is no exception.
He explained further that, “if there are practices between the maritime administration that makes the ship registry unattractive, naturally no business will want to patronize that ship registry, Nigeria is no exception”.
Ilori noted that there is need for the present administration to make its full intention known towards the improvement of the Nigeria ship registry and how to make the Nigeria flag attractive to ship owners
“In recent times, actions were taken to improve ship registry, the previous administration did a lot, that action is taken to reverse negative developments in the Nigeria ship registry, now the present administration needs to make its full intention known, what our policy is, towards the improvement of the Nigeria ship registry and how to make the Nigeria flag attractive to ship owners. I believe that’s a work in progress we will continue to work with them whenever we are able to, to make sure that we improve the ship registry”, he said.
“There are so many factors that make the Nigeria ship registry not the preferred choice, and these are the factors we are trying to address and it was as a result of that positive exercise that the ship reform committee came into being” he said.
However, check by Shipping Position Daily revealed that growing Nigerian fleet would help to create jobs for the youth, improve Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and increase the nation’s foreign reserve, which would lead to economic development.
Data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which shows that Nigerian total merchandise trade made up of export and import for 2019, totalled N36.1 billion, and the total value of the marine component of that trade was over $33 billion, which contributed about 97 percent of that merchandise trade, showing there is a market that is open for Nigerian ship owners to participate in.
The immediate past Secretary General, of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control for West and Central African Region, Mrs. Mfon Usoro, while speaking at a maritime symposium recently to mark the 70th birthday of the Chairman, Starz Group, Mr. Greg Ogbeifun, argued that: “How much of Nigeria’s import and export is carried onboard vessels that carry the Nigerian flag? As we talk about the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), another reality check is the size of Nigerian ships by flag registration”.
“According to statistics by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), we have about 722 of 100 tonnages and above. While we celebrate the fact that we are recognised by UNCTAD, if you look at the dwt of the foreign-registered vessels by Nigerians, you would realise that it is higher than the vessels currently flagged Nigeria. So, we have to address the issues that make Nigerians register their vessels in other nations”, she advised.
She said that there is a need for Nigeria to have a plan to grow the national fleet, adding that the nation should aspire to reserve a percentage of wet and bulk cargoes for indigenous ship owners.
“Nigeria should have a target to carry a certain percentage of Africa’s trade and world trade in 10 years’ time. Nigerian-flagged ships should constitute one percent to two percent or more of the global fleet and not a paltry 0.2 percent,” she said.
According to her, there is a need for the government to take a central position to prioritize maritime transportation in national economic development.
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