..As Demand Hits $400Million
Transport minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio has directed that disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) take place before the end of this year.
The minister gave the matching orders last week in Abuja at the 2009 annual ministerial press briefing where he stressed that government was desirous of her participation in shipping.
Alhaji Bio confirmed that collections in respect of the CVFF has already hit N14illion, a far cry from actual requirement from indigenous ship owners whose application t draw from the fund is already in the neighbourhood of $4OOMillion.
The non-disbursement of proceeds form the CVFF as stipulated in the Cabotage Act has been one of the perceived failures of the six year old law, as indigenous ship owners have variously solicited for disbursement to enable them re-tonnage.
The minister also seized the opportunity to disclose that Nigeria’s ship registry now has additional 183 ships , making it a total of 1,286 ships with a gross tonnage of 1, 330,575.27 metric tonne.
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