Lucky Amiwero (President, NCMDLCA)
Lucky Amiwero (President, NCMDLCA)
The maritime industry since independence have been having a lot of hiccups and we pray that God will regain and change the situation, we have a lot of things that have not been done so we believe that the government in their own place, will do things right; more so in the maritime industry the procedures have to change, the same framework should be implemented, so that they can have security and safety in place , inspection, then the Cabotage, we should look at it critically and see how it can be implemented, then we look at the port process in terms of legislation in order to make sure we have commercial regulators so also we will have to look at our indigenous operators so as to see how we can build capacity, grow them so that they can be better and not just dealing with capacity that is not there, so also are our procedures; so that we can see how best we can structure them along international best practice, same with processes which are outdated so that they can also be in line with international best practice. Therefore, we need to move fast, the maritime industry needs to be focused on, there must be a division between politics and profession so that we will be able to move forward.
Capt. Ishola Adewale (Master Mariner)
I have to be honest with you, We are following a downward trend, we are going down the slope, we have reached a peak at a time and we are now going down the slope; in the area of capacity development, infrastructure, ship ownership, area of training, we are better off at independence than now, unfortunately. Our forefathers saw reasons and trained people like us with federal government money via scholarships and with the God- given oil resources we have, we were able to acquire ships, the oil is still there, why can’t we acquire more ships, there is no national carrier, the oil and gas is booming but it is only for the foreigners, they made Cabotage law and yet it is not empowering indigenous ship owners. So one cannot be happy at all, because things are not the way they used to be when we were younger. And with modern technology we are supposed to improve, we are supposed to train more people, if not for the militancy period that drove away some of the expatriates and then Nigerians were to fill some gaps, there would have been no Nigerians in the oil and gas sector at the moment. On the positive side, because of the transformation agenda of the president, they have deemed it fit to now partner with the maritime sector and that has accumulated freely in the appointments of the committees to look into the challenges in the maritime sector and I think that might be a way out.
Valentino Buoro (Stakeholder)
We are going round the same spot, the issues during the 1990's are still the same thing at this moment; such as costs that can be minimized, issues of too much of human traffic particularly the security agencies and all kind of agencies in the port. The government, right from the military era would send them away and they would come back and we are still on the same spot and no incentives or encouragements for local players, how many indigenous shipping companies are in operation, we talked about the Cabotage Act that we as Nigerians are supposed to be manning vessels within our territorial waters but how many of that is being done today? When you talk to the ISAN, you should ask them how much we are losing to the foreign interests in the movement of crude oil or any kind of petroleum within our own territorial waters.
Barrister Osuala Nwagbara
The Nigeria maritime industry has fared very well since independence, taking the issues from different angles such as shipping companies that are indigenous to Nigeria. By 1960 just as the other nations, Nigeria established the Nigeria National Shipping Line and it went on, eventually collapsed and frizzled out in the 1990's. More so Nigeria today has a lot of shipping companies that are owned exclusively by Nigerians and in conjunction with foreigners. Taking a look at regulatory institutions the industry, from about 1960, we have had NPA which regulated everything, Nigerian Ports Authority had the port, the berth, they managed the channels, they provided security in the ports but today you have other institutions such as NIMASA which takes areas of jurisdiction in the maritime domain. Protection of shippers such as the importers and exporters, the Nigerian Shippers' council takes care of that. But before this time, there was nothing like that. Even at the court level, Nigeria has also developed to the stage of having her Admiralty Court, which is the Federal High Court. The same goes for the competence of Nigerians, because I am not sure if there was anyone who was a master mariner or a Chief engineer on vessel at that time .
OBIORA MADU (CEO, Multimix Academy)
The maritime industry has made some substantial progress between independence and now but it has no room near optimum at all. The industry still requires lots of attention and lots of work need to be done to get the maritime industry to operate to the optimum. For example, by our location, Nigeria is supposed to be like a logistic hub for West and Central Africa but we have not been able to take advantage of that, therefore one can say fine, we are not where we were at that time, but again we are far from world class best practiced, that means those who are managing the industry need to do a lot of work and be more strategic.
Irinyemi Ademola (Registrar, IFFN)
Firstly, I want to say that the Nigerian maritime industry has not fared badly; there have been some landmarks in the past year. The advent of our aggressive desire to connect with the globe with the embrace of e-business structures, particularly by the Nigeria Customs, there is this apparent upgrading of their structures. The various agencies such as NIMASA have been doing a lot towards embracing facilities that will enhance their work. But, the only area I will say they are still struggling with is the area of the industry regulator; they have dragged that for too long. Also, the associations in the freight forwarding sector should work together as a team and support the apex body which is the regulatory body (CRFFN) in facilitating trade.
Donatus Ofoma (NAGAFF)
Nigeria has fared well, there are some ugly situations and good situations and I will give it a pass mark. I will say this because before, the freight forwarders were not well organised, they were ordinary clearing and forwarding agents. I will say the Customs are doing well, they are accruing more revenue than before, but I wouldn’t give a pass mark to the security agency because they have not done well, it was safer before the independence than now. The area where I have been expecting more from is the area of the cost of clearing goods in Nigeria, the concessionaires are not making things better, it is very expensive to do business in Nigeria than before, therefore there is no pass mark there at all.
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