Transport Minister; Amaechi Shifts June Take-Off Date For National Carrier

Transportation Minister; Mr Rotimi Amaechi has backed down on his earlier assurance that the proposed new national carrier would be up and sailing by the middle of this year.
The Minister had late last month told maritime industry stakeholders that the Federal Government is determined to establish a new national carrier. He went ahead to compose a committee to advise government on how to go about it, he also gave the take-off date as June 2016.
However, Shipping Position Daily confirmed last week that the Minister has since told the committee that the take-off date is no longer June.
The minister is currently toying with the idea of a new date, and a member of the committee told one of our correspondents that he has fixed December 2016.
But, sources at the Ministry of Transportation confirmed that the minister’s decision was informed by the obvious impossibility of floating a national carrier by June.
“The fact is, we are not even sure if the December date is feasible, there is a lot of work involved, the committee has just commenced its work, so wait for their report and then the Ministry will look at it”, a senior source at the Ministry of Transport told our correspondent.
Also, a member of the committee told our correspondent on Saturday that the committee had broken into two sub-committees. He gave the sub committees as: “Committee on NIMASA and committee on CVFF”.