The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said that it is going to sit with the management of Nigeria Customs Service to address high import duties and other fiscal policies which have killed ship yards in Nigeria and scared away potential investors in the sector.
NIMASA executive director of Operations; Engineer Rotimi Fashakin stated this yesterday in Lagos at the 6th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture (MENA) division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
Citing an example, Fashakin said that one of the foremost shipyards in Nigeria, West Atlantic Shipyard in Onne, Rivers State was crippled by unfavorable government fiscal policies and taxes.
According to him, it is now more lucrative to import vessels from China and Korea than to actually build vessels in Nigeria.
He assured that NIMASA is going to ensure the right representation in government to ensure import duties are reduced so that Nigerian ship yards can thrive and survive economic tides.
He said, "Last year we went to Onne to see West Atlantic Shipyard, I was horrified at the enormity of decay, after churning out 500 medium sized vessels. Due to economic challenges, it has become a shadow of itself"
"One of the challenges they highlighted was prohibitive customs duty, it is now cheaper to bring in vessel from China and Korea than to actually build vessels, because the moment you build your vessel, it leaves the free trade zones, but as soon as it lands on shore, it attracts huge prohibitive import duties, this wipes off whatever gains you want to make on that vessel"
"One of the things that we as an agency are trying to take up is to make the right representation in government, we have had interaction with the Nigeria Customs before now and we are still going to continue the interaction to make it that such a ship yards, in order to build indigenous capacity, would attract less import duties so that Nigerian ship yards can thrive and survive the tides", he added.
Fashakin also said that NIMASA is looking at ways to partner the right investors that want to bring the right investment into the country.
While delivering a paper titled: "The Role of Marine Infrastructure in Sustainable Economic Development: Nigeria in Focus, President of Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN); Engr. Greg Ogbeifun said that ship manufacturing and ship recycling are part of the maritime sector that is greatly unexploited.
He said that ship recycling and ship manufacturing and dry-docking hold much benefit for Nigerian economy through job creation, transfer of skills and stemming capital flight.
He however noted that critical sectors like the steel industry and power sector is key to ship building and manufacturing.
He lamented that in Nigeria, there are no ship recycling activities despite the high number of scrapped ships and the relics that adorn our coastal and inland waterways. He said that the relics constitute navigational hazards to safer shipping and cleaner waters.
On his part, National Chairman of MENA, Engr Charles Otuonye announced that due to changes at national headquarters of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in Abuja, it has become necessary for MENA as a division to modify its name and titles.
He said that henceforth, the division would now be referred to as: The Nigerian Institution of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects.
He said that the AGM and conference is an annual event targeted at bringing together great minds in the maritime industry to interact and exchange ideas on technical matters to enhance both economic and technological developments in Nigeria.
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