• ‘You are looking for free money; I will not disburse CVFF’—Minister
The Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) has called for the immediate sack of the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Dr Dakuku Peterside over Nigeria’s recent loss of elections into the Category ‘C’ of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Perhaps, speaking the minds of critical stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime industry who felt bad over the loss, President of SOAN; Engr Greg Ogbeifun argued that Nigeria lost the IMO Council elections because of NIMASA’s lack of capacity to deal effectively in maritime trade, maintain maritime security, develop maritime infrastructure and raise efficient professionals.
Speaking at the SOAN end of the year workshop and dinner, Ogbeifun said the defeat confirmed what the international community feels about Nigeria’s performance.
“The world has told us that our maritime domain is sick and almost moribund, that we are not a maritime nation that can be relied on for maritime trade, maritime security, and maritime infrastructure or for seafarers and other maritime professionals’’,he told the gartering.
He said the performance at the elections has “dealt a hard blow” on the “psyche” of the sector and called for the immediate sack of the head of Nigeria maritime administration; (NIMASA)
He said while past NIMASA Directors General have been sacked due to fraud-related cases, this is the time to have the political boldness to sack the present leadership of NIMASA due to lack of competence.
“You can imagine that we have so much money which could have been used to support ship owners to grow their fleet, but it was left to squander, the consequences of this is glaring, the international community are watching and they know, when we go out there begging for money, they ask us why we are coming to them when we have a fund in our maritime administration for shipping”
“We need to evaluate some of the people we put in some of these offices, change their performance and do a little bit of diligence before they are appointed to ensure that they are people that can take our maritime industry to the expected level”.
The association also urged Minister of Transportation; Mr Rotimi Amaechi to release the N100billion Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) to ship owners to grow their tonnage.
But in a swift reaction, the minister told the gathering that he would not disburse the CVFF until proper structures that would guarantee repayment of the loans have been put in place. Amaechi pointedly accused the ship owners of looking for cheap money and that they have refused to take advantage of the various government policies.
Amaechi said that the ministry may have to give the CVFF fund to the Bank of Industry (BOI) because according to him, the bank has a more solid structure in place to recover the money from whoever collects it.
While lashing at the shipowners, he said, “there are various policies in place, but how many of you have made use of it, you are not interested, you are looking for money, you are not looking at the opportunities that can make you benefit from the maritime sector”
“I will not release that fund, as long as I am the Minister of Transportation, why won’t I release the fund? We gave over N300billion to owners and businessmen in the aviation industry, some took N35billion, N32billion and they disappeared and they used the money to go and build a bank in Ghana and Sao Tome and nothing has happened to them”
“The Bank of Industry is more structured, but the CVFF has no structure, the law says recommendation from NIMASA to the minister and the minister approves, but there is no way I could hold you back if you don’t pay back, we must put processes in place that would make sure that if you collect the money, you would pay back”
“If you teach me how to spend that money, we will spend it. But to give you that kind of money that we gave to aviation and the money disappeared, no I will not, no matter what you do.
“Bank of Industry for example is structured and if somebody doesn’t pay they will grab him, but in our own, there is no structure. Once I pay you, you go. The law says recommendation from NIMASA to Minister and once the minister approves, you take your money but how do I hold you back?
Amaechi also berated the Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside for failing to implement the report of the ministerial committee set up to reposition the agency after he had given his approval.
“As the Minister of Transport, I sat down with all of you and you set up a committee, the committee submitted its report, you indicted us there. When I got the report I asked the NIMASA DG who is also the chairman of the committee why are you not implementing the committee’s report, he said he is yet to get directive from me and I gave that directive in writing, so he is yet to answer why he is not implementing”
“For me as the minister, I am still not satisfied with the industry, I believe the industry is supposed to produce more money than it is producing, what the industry is asking for is free money, the solution to a problem is not by adding more money, we need to identify the problem first”
“Heads may likely roll when the report of the audit comes in, if they say people are not performing in Shippers Council or NIMASA it means we need new persons that can perform, if in the cause of the investigation anybody is accused of stealing money, the person would account for the money”
Also speaking at the event, Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki challenged SOAN to focus on movement of domestic cargoes.
“My challenge to this association is that we should stop looking at our situation as if we are isolated from the general, political and social economic problems that we have and see ourselves within that context and as you work towards resolving the issues within the industry, you must understand that priority has to be placed first on the macro environment you seek to operate because without domestic production, we cannot have a thriving maritime industry”
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