What is your appraisal of the industry so far this year?
We are still in the process of liaising with the relevant authorities to change the way we operate. There is no development. Most Nigerian ship owners are now ex-ship owners. So until the government policy actually comes out. We are looking at a situation where it is favorable to us, so we can have something to say.
What do you think is responsible for low ownership of ships in Nigeria?
I think it’s a system failure. What I would say is a system failure is because in a situation whereby you buy a ship, you use that ship for some time and the ship needs to be dry-docked and we don’t have enough dry docking facilities in Nigeria. The cost of dry docking by the time you go outside will be so high. Then you don’t have a choice than to allow the ship to waste away and sell as scrap. Another thing we should be looking at is that we are not getting good patronage. If you don’t have good patronage, you won’t have money to even repair the vessel or to replace them. There was a time I remember saying that we have some international opportunities, when we were still doing a lot of trans-shipment offshore. I call it international conspiracy against Nigerian ship owners. What I mean by international conspiracy against Nigerian ship owners is that they bring big vessels from overseas to work here, when local ship owners want to do trans-shipment from those vessels, the next thing you realize is that you don’t have this kind of certificate; you don’t have this and that. But you will see rickety vessels that were brought in by foreigners find their way and before you know what is happening, they are alongside and they are loading and doing transshipment. That’s why I said it was an international conspiracy against Nigerian ship owners. In fact, it was around that time that a lot of Nigerian ship owners lost business.
What are your programmes or what agenda do you have for the association as the new president?
Our main agenda is to build capacity; that is building capacity in terms of infrastructure and human capacity. When I say infrastructure, I mean seeing how we can come in to increase people’s participation in the business, to see if there is a way the people that have lost their business can take it back; and getting good vessels for them. When I say getting vessels for them, I’m not the one that is going to buy it for them, but there are ways we can collaborate with government to get those things done and make those things happen. Like the so-called CVFF that we are talking about, it’s part of it, but it’s not the end. We are looking at a situation whereby we can recommend to government, train seafarers and let them be gainfully-employed. If you look at that line, you realize that that the profession is fading gradually. Because it is the old ones that are there; unlike those days when we had the NNSL training people who were taking over from one set to the other. But when you look at it now, there is no training, no training vessel, nothing is happening. Everybody is just for themselves. But we intend to collaborate with the government and see how we can make a meaningful impact. We can make a meaningful impact that will help the economy and help ourselves.
When you were campaigning to become the president of the association, one of the things you promised was that you were going to revive the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX). How do you intend to achieve this?
You will realize that NIMAREX has been in limbo for some years now, which is not too good for the country. NIMAREX was patterned after OTC which is supposed to be a yearly event. Right now, I’m in a meeting with my executive, and we are fashioning a way out of it. We will make recommendations known to the house at the general meeting and we believe that we can achieve a lot in that area by partnering with other agencies to showcase what we have in Nigeria. This is because Nigeria has a lot of potentials. Our problem is that these things are not being properly showcased, which is just the essence of NIMAREX. We would partner with them and get good recommendations from consultants that will assist in the course of reintroducing NIMAREX. We would be there; like I promised during the campaign, NIMAREX will happen early next year. This is because it is too close now and we want to have a proper outing.
Some people have accused the association of not having ship owners in the real sense of it. In terms of strength, how many ship owners does NISA have?
I think that question is better answered by NIMASA. They will be in a better position to answer that question. But like I said the other time, everybody knows that NISA is the main umbrella of the Nigerian Ship owners Association. Other people are just breakaway factions. Most of them are even fading out now. When we talk of associate members, it is not good. I won’t say it is not possible not to have associate members. But it is not good not to have people that have something to do with ship as part of your members. That is the norm everywhere. When you say ship owner, it doesn’t really mean that everybody has to be a ship owner. There are people that are doing maritime-related business and they have a lot to benefit by having a relationship with actual ship owners. They should form part of us because in some cases they form part the policy as well. Is it ship owners that form the policy on how to register a ship or how to certify a ship, and all those things? We believe that people that are accusing us of having associate members do not know what they are doing; as far as I am concerned.
I would like to recall events leading to your election. Some people didn’t feel quite happy about it. Even before then, NISA had challenges of some people who broke away. How do you intend to finally cement all those broken walls?
We are in the process. Reconciliation is a continuous exercise. It is not something that you do at once. It is not as if they are not happy with the election that brought me in. The major problem of the people we are talking about is that they didn’t want the election to take place. What is the essence of having an association that has been run by a steering committee for over three years? We must start from somewhere. I have come as a neutral person to see what I can do to move the association to the next level and quit the stage. Nothing more! I don’t have anything to benefit. I have a thriving business.
How does NISA under you intend to break the jinx of the CVFF and ensure that the fund is made available?
I think government has done that already. It is not left for ship owners or interested parties to meet the recommendation. I even love the way they did it. It is not as if because you are a big man in Nigeria and you know somebody you can just go to NIMASA, pick up a recommendation and go and take money. No, it would not work like that. What they recommended was that banks would be the ones that would administer the fund. They call them Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs). They are the ones that will recommend based on your activities, cash flow, and the business you have been doing in the past, whether you qualify for such things. You know the way banks work in Nigeria anyways. They wouldn’t like to lose their money because they have 35% of the money. While the ship owners only have 15%, government has 15%. Banks have the responsibility of securing their fund and when they are securing their fund, they are securing NIMASA’s fund as well. So I believe with the inclusion of the Primary Lending Institutions, it will be a better arrangement and I know the government will be comfortable with that, because gone are those when we have freed money everywhere, there is no free money in Nigeria again. NIMASA called the stakeholders to a meeting and we were made to understand that the money is there and they are ready for disbursement. But you know, that there was a change in government in May and between December last year and that time, everybody was rounding up. But I believe that by the time this present government comes with a maritime agenda, it should form part of the things we should be talking about.
If you are going to advise the government, what would you advise as priority; as part of the maritime agenda for the government?
That CVFF is very important. Like I said before, we have a lot of ex-Nigeria ship owners now. The only people that have vessels now are very few. The government should try as much as possible to establish a working dry dock. The situation whereby our people go to Ghana or these small African countries to go and dry dock is uncalled for. We are losing money and you know when we have a dockyard, it can provide employment for as many people as possible. Then they should make the environment more conducive. This means a situation whereby jobs that are meant for Nigerians are left for Nigerians. Let us practice Cabotage the way it should be practiced. The issue of exception should not be a regular thing. In a situation whereby foreign companies just come, use some lawyers and before you know what is happening, they get exceptions and take over Nigerian jobs. I don’t think it is the best. Let Nigeria citizens benefit from the opportunities we have in this country. When we have a very good working environment, good dockyards, good vessels, then we can compete for most of the jobs that are being undertaken by foreigners.
Talking about ships and CVFF, we know that the totality of the funds available under the CVFF is very small and people say the funds can’t buy state-of-the-art ships. What do you think about this?
Let us start from somewhere first. That is where I stand. I learnt that the government has limited each company to about $25 million. At $25 million can still get something. Then when they are giving you CVFF, you can still buy a ship that is more than $25 million. If government says you are supposed to put 15% and you have money on your own, you can afford to put 30 to 40%. It even makes the government money to be more secured. When they are giving you a ceiling of $25 million, it doesn’t mean that you should buy a ship of $25 million. You can still buy something that is better. It depends on the area where one is looking at. If I’m buying a bunker vessel, I might not need more than $10 million. It depends on the size. But I believe I might not need more than $10 million to get a good bunker vessel.
The roads leading to Apapa, Ijora or Mile 2 are not very good. What is your perspective to this?
I think we should continue to call government’s attention to it. Because considering the kind of business and flows that comes out of this Apapa, I believe they should make this Apapa a good area for anyone to do business. This is because this is where we have the seaports and you can imagine what the government is making from these ports. So I believe that the government should pay more attention to it. They should do it gradually but they should concentrate. Presently, they are working on that Leventis Bridge, but that is not the solution. But some of these things, there are some small areas that you only need to do very small repairs and it will help the flow of traffic. But they won’t do it immediately; they will wait until the thing actually deteriorates.
Another thing is the issue of all these articulated vehicles. There are just too many. Let our train system work. Let’s be using train systems to move goods such as petroleum products and dry cargo out of Apapa to make Apapa more attractive to people. But inasmuch as they still allow these trucks to come around, and we don’t have a very good train system, even if they do the road, it will soon be damaged.
