About nine years after it was enacted into law and eight years of unsuccessful attempts to implement it, stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime sector have finally come to agreement that the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act, popularly known as Cabotage law in Nigeria failed.
About nine years after it was enacted into law and eight years of unsuccessful attempts to implement it, stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime sector have finally come to agreement that the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act, popularly known as Cabotage law in Nigeria failed.
At a one day sensitization and consultative forum which held in Lagos yesterday at the instance of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which is the enforcement agency of the law in Nigeria, a cross section of maritime practitioners agreed that the law has failed to give the envisaged financial impetus and active participation in Nigeria’s’ maritime trade to indigenous companies.
Speaking at the forum, a frontline maritime consultant, Hon. Green Ekeledo pointed out that one of the factors that have militated against the law is the inclusion of the waiver clause. According to him, the reasons for having the waiver clause no longer exist, hence it should be terminated.
Hon Green advised that NIMASA should approach the National Assembly to replace the waiver clause with ‘the right of first refusal’ clause which in his opinion will give indigenous companies considerable advantage when bidding processes are carried out.
“The waiver clause should be expunged because Cabotage is a home trade and not foreign policy business, and we have more Nigerians qualified to handle the business”.
He also said that the 2% that is being collected by NIMASA on every vessel that berths in Nigeria is not enough and that there is need to put an Act in place to increase the money in order to strengthen the development of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
Another major reason identified by him was that there is lack of collaboration among the indigenous ship owners, he said that their refusal to come together and be unified during the bidding processes has made them vulnerable in competing with the international oil companies (IOC).
Also speaking at the forum, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Eng. Earnest Nwapa, who was represented a by Mr. Wole Akinyosoye, identified the proliferation of small vessel owning companies as the reason why Nigerians have been unable to get contracts in the upstream oil business.
Nwapa advised that the indigenous practitioners should put heads together and fuse into one big company in other to be able to rip the reward of Cabotage.
Another veteran stakeholder, Otunba Kunle Folarin, pointed out that the four pillars of the Cabotage are a mere façade which is not really obtainable in the industry.
According to him, there has not been the required synergy between NIMASA and the various government agencies and ministries like the finance ministry, agriculture ministr, and others that will assist in the realization of Cabotage.
“Is the ministry of transport working in tandem with the ministry of finance? Is the ministry of petroleum and natural resources working with the ministry of transport? There must be synergy between us these ministries otherwise it will be a different tune whose melody will not be melodious”
Otunba Folarin said that there has been a gap between demand and supply; he identified ship building and ship repair yards as areas that Nigerians have not been able to venture into and which are fundamentals of Cabotage.
“Ministerial antagonism must stop, the ministry of finance oversees the Customs, but the Customs are not here, are we going to implement Cabotage without the customs? It’s not possible” he stated.
He however called for the establishment of an inspectorate unit NIMASA to monitor vessels and compliant levels, according to him, Cabotage cannot be only be enforced administratively.
Discussion about this post