As it is customary, we seize the opportunity of the first edition of Shipping Position Daily for the year, to usher you into our world. We appreciate your support in 2024, and we say Happy New Year!
The norm is to be hopeful that each new year will be better than the previous one. So, we hope that 2025 shall offer better tidings for the Nigerian maritime industry.
Even as the issues of the previous years have remained prevalent and dominant, the tendency to be pessimistic is indeed high.
The Nigerian maritime industry, just like others contended and indeed struggled with other sectors to cope with the challenges of 2024; a year when our Naira was hugely humbled by virtually all currencies, Dollar, Pounds, Euro and most shockingly by West Africa CFA Franc (CEFA).
Apart from the issue of currency, there were indeed some issues that had their own identities. There were issues such as bad port access roads in some port in the country. Scarcity and soaring cost of forex for importation was constant throughout 2024, because of the issue that we raised earlier. There was a plethora of other challenges.
It is shocking that for many years, the fears that we nursed and indeed predicted have refused to abate. Rather, in 2024 they became more pronounced and reinforced.
From shippers to clearing agents, to ship owners, haulage operators, stevedoring companies, the story has remained the same.
While it is true that the roads leading to some of the ports had been fixed, they were rendered useless, because of the activities of non-state actors.
For the importers, the agony of 2024 was still about accessibility and cost of foreign exchange, which at a point climbed to as high as N1,700 to $1 in the parallel market. For the Customs licensed agents, it was the usually cumbersome and high cost of cargo clearance. For the ship owners, it was the same old story of lack of patronage and dominance of foreign ship owners and the non-disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund. For the owners/drivers of articulated vehicles that are used for dry and wet cargo haulage, 2024 was not quite different from previous years. But for those who patronized them, it was a bit better, because it cost less.
Despite the electronic call-up system of the NPA, trucking business still remained an avenue for extortion by certain interests, even in 2024.
Just like in the previous years when government mounted pressure on the maritime sector for revenue, owing to the drop in earnings from crude oil, attention was on the sector for revenue for the government in 2024. In response to this, the Nigeria Customs Service rose up to the occasion. It collected about N6.1 trillion last year.
As we begin the journey into 2025, we are conscious of the fact that expectations are high on account of the birth (in 2023) of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, headed by the immediate past Governor of Osun State; Mr Adegboyega Oyetola.
The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy Ministry superintends NIMASA, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC); Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), MAN Oron, and the CRFFN. These are agencies that are already saddled with their respective challenges, which predate the birth of the new ministry.
We, just like other stakeholders, had expected that the ministry would hit the ground in 2023, it did not, so everyone thought it would be in 2024. This is because, nothing was noticeable in 2023, apart from a few visits to the minister and meetings with some stakeholders.
The Minister had proposed in 2024 that he would focus on facilitating the oversight and monitoring of government policies within the marine and blue economy domain.
He also promised that the ministry would pursue the goal of generating $20 billion annually, while aiming to create two million jobs on a yearly basis through strategic development within the sector.
In 2024, the minister said he had plans to transform the Marine and Blue Economy sector into a significant contributor to the nation’s economy.
Oyetola also said that government was considering the re-establishment of a National Shipping Line, through a strategic PPP arrangement.
Without doubt, all the above are empty promises, carried into 2025 by the ministry which superintends over many strategic agencies of government.
As a maritime media organisation, we are happy that 2024 witnessed a further decline in attack on ships coming into Nigeria. We commend both NIMASA and the Nigeria Navy for this feat. Our waters are safer now than they were in previous years.
It is our hope that in 2025, NIMASA will work more seriously towards ensuring that the feat is sustained. Between the Minister and the DG of NIMASA, the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund should be achieved in 2025. Enough of shifting the goal post, please.
We recall that, about this time in 2024, we had refused to reel out our expectations of the then-new ministry of marine and blue economy. But this year we are very hopeful that the Minister will go beyond promises and fine-tuning a policy framework for the ministry.
It is however our hope that 2025 will usher-in a new era of growth and impact for the nation’s maritime industry.
