The Minister of State; Transportation; Senator Gbemi Saraki has kicked against the non-disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF); she lamented that the development is disheartening.
The minister disclosed this during a media interaction last Friday in Lagos. The media parley was the climax of Saraki’s stakeholders’ engagement which lasted between Monday and Friday.
Even though she did not specify when the disbursement of the CVFF would commence, she nevertheless assured that the fund will be disbursed. She also expressed her displeasure that, even though there had been agitation by ship owners, nothing had changed as regards the CVFF,
The CVFF, created in 2003 under the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003, is a pool of funds derived from two per cent of every contract awarded under the Cabotage regime, which covers shipping activities within the inland and coastal areas of the country. The fund was designed to enable indigenous shipping lines to acquire vessels to enable them to compete with their foreign counterparts.
The CVFF is an integral part of the Cabotage Act 2003, which provides that all vessels for shipping activities within the inland and coastal shipping must be built in Nigeria, owned and crewed by Nigerians. The Act has a waiver clause, which allows the deployment of foreign vessels in case there is no indigenous vessels to carry Cabotage cargoes.
The CVFF currently stands at about $350million (N210billion) since it was created.
But the minister told journalists on Friday that: “I assure you that before the end of this administration, we will have the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), which has gone up to 350 million dollars”.
Contrary to allegations that the CVFF has been mismanaged, Saraki however assured that the fund was still intact.
“It is really very disheartening that the fund has not been disbursed but we will work with the National Assembly to ensure its disbursement; just watch, it has to be disbursed, especially with the coming on stream of the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA. In the course of this visit, I have also interacted with so many stakeholders including the indigenous ship owners. I know the number of vessels that Nigerians had 10 years ago and I know how many they have now.
“It is really a shame that this fund has not been disbursed, I learnt the value is $350million now and I am not sure any part of it is missing. We will work with the National Assembly to pass the guidelines. It is not really about the Federal Ministry of Finance but I think it is more of the political will to disburse it and I think we have the political will to do so”, the Minister also assured.
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The Minister disclosed that the guidelines for the disbursement of the fund have been formulated and would soon be presented to the National Assembly for approval, which would immediately be followed by the actual disbursement of the funds to the already shortlisted beneficiaries.
On the allegation that the Federal Ministry of Finance at some point directed that the fund should not be disbursed, she noted that it was not about the Finance Ministry, it is rather more about securing approval of the guidelines for the disbursement from the National Assembly, which would be done in no distant time.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the immediate past Minister of Transportation; Mr Rotimi Amaechi had in 2020, set up a committee to develop fresh guidelines for the disbursement of the fund. Part of the new guidelines was that only indigenous ship owners, who have contributed to the fund, are eligible to access the loan.
Headed by the then Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, other members of the CVFF committee include the chairman, of Nigerian Ship Owners Forum, Mrs. Margaret Orakwusi; Vice Chairman, C&I Leasing, Emeka Ndu; then-Managing Director, Starz Marine, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun; and President, Nigerian Shipowners Association NISA, Aminu Umar, among others.
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