NIMASA Grows Local Shipowners Intervention Fund to $124m

ABIOLA Seun |

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has disclosed that indigenous Shipowners intervention fund also known as Cabotage Vessel Finance Funds (CVFF) has raised to $124m.

Speaking with some select few journalists in Lagos, the Director General the agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside said the fund would be disbursed to Shipowners between now and next year.

Recall that the DG had in September 2017 at a cocktail parley for stakeholders in Ship and Maritime Infrastructure Financing organized by the Nigerian Ship Finance Conference and Exhibition (NISFCOE) disclosed that the CVFF funds domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) was $100m.

The fund which was derived from two percent deductions from every contract awarded was meant to help grow the capacity of indigenous ship owners’ intention and also provide the needed capital for them to acquire vessels.

The DG said the fund which had risen to $124million would be disbursed between now and 2019.

He said, “As at the last time I checked, we have $124million in the CVFF and it is with the Central Bank of Nigeria and not with any commercial bank. Let me say with some degree of certainty that the CVFF will be disbursed between now and next year.

“The federal minister of transportation who has the authority to disburse the fund has been engaging with me and the Industry is engaging him. Also, I have seen that the minister is desirous to disburse the money but he doesn’t want the fund to go the way of previous ones or similar funds in the past but the minister has ordered quick review of guidelines and when they are done with the review, we will commence disbursement of the CVFF,” he assured.

NIMASA also expressed concern over rising cases of piracy on the nation’s waterways.

Peterside who acknowledged that the primary responsibility of the agency was to ensure that vessels that call at the nation’s seaports are safe assured stakeholders that piracy would be fought to barest minimum in next four months.

“We are concerned about cases of piracy within our waterways but NIMASA working through the maritime command has improved and increased surveillance that within our waterways. We are working with our partners in the Nigerian Navy who have designed a number of special programs to patrol waterways especially in the Niger-Delta.

“We have also reactivated our maritime domain awareness our satellite view which give us the view of the entire maritime space, the challenge is building the capacity to respond but today when you come to NIMASA you will see all that is going on within our maritime space we are working very hard to build capacity and we will acquire fast intervention vessels, fast intervention or maritime security helicopter or even special mission aircraft.

“We are working closely to train a new set of military men because we are not allowed to bear arms and retrain them on maritime security surveillance in particular and we hope that in the next four months, we will see lots of changes in maritime security we are working hard to reduce piracy to the barest minimum the number of pirate cases on our waterways.”

Speaking on the compliance of International Ships and Ports Security Code (ISPS) code, he stated that the agency has recorded 80 percent compliance.

“The primary responsibility of NIMASA is to ensure ships calling at our ports are safe and secured. We do under two principal programs, ISPS code programme and NIMASA maritime security strategy i.e. the total spectrum of maritime security strategy but what are we doing is that we have grown compliance from 13 percent at various times to 80 percent. We also ensure port facilities adhere to ISPs code and we have been commended by department of transport of United Kingdom and United State Coast Guard. We have received commendation from these two major international partners.”

Also, vessels operating in the nation’s cabotage trade had increased by 33 percent in the last six months.

Dr Peterside said a total of 125 vessels owned by Nigerians were registered by the agency between January to June 2018. Peterside attributed the growth to increase in activities at the oil and gas sector and related sector.

“Within the period, 125 vessels have been registered under our cabotage register representing 33% increase because there have been upward swing in activities in the oil and gas industry and related industry we have more vessels supporting their activities we have 33% within the period under review. 125 vessels registered under our cabotage registry are owned by Nigerians almost all are owned by Nigerians and so we are fulfilling our mandate of giving Nigerians the enablement of taking charge of cabotage within our coastal waters.”

Peterside also disclosed that the agency’s zero tolerance for manning waiver has contributed to the increase in the number of Nigerians on board cabotage vessels.”

According to him, a 1,685 tanker operation was captured in the month under review.

His words, “In the last six months, a total of 1,685 tanker operations were captured by the Satellite Surveillance System. Of these operations, 284 were carried out at the anchorage area through lightering. Effectively, through surveillance guided enforcement operations, the 284 tankers that were lightened at the anchorage were hindered from participating in Cabotage Operations.

“This has impacted positively on Cabotage trade creating room for more local participation. This was not the case in 2017 when we could not separate between anchorage operations and Cabotage trade with high likelihood of 532 international vessels proceeding on Cabotage

Trade after lightering operations at the anchorage.”

“In terms of cabotage trade there is increase in number of Nigerians on board cabotage vessels because of our introduction of new cabotage compliance strategy where there is zero tolerance for granting of manning waivers.

“And because of zero tolerance for granting manning waivers, the number of Nigerian seafarers placed onboard from January to June 2018 has risen to 2337 representing 58.9 percent increase. In the past six months, 2337 seafarers has been placed onboard cabotage vessels and we can give names of vessel’s and seafarers.

“And that represent 58.9% increase in number of Nigerians onboard cabotage vessels within our country. In terms of shipping development, NIMASA has a mandate of reviewing time to time bench mark the freight benchmark but things are changing everywhere shippers call for review no one gives priority but between the period under review NIMASA has reviewed 3percent and it was done based on request by operators and this is to provide conducive environment for investment to grow.