SILHOUTTE: Mobereola, DG NIMASA Decline To Commit To Disbursement of CVFF

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

Stakeholders, players and operators in the nation’s coastal transportation subsector were last Thursday left confused and despondent as the federal government dashed their hopes of the likely disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) this year.

The new Director General of the Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dayo Mobereola had glaringly parried questions on the protracted disbursement of the CVFF directed at him; leaving stakeholders stunned at his attitude; despite that he gave some form of general assurance that all issues raised would be looked into.

The CVFF also called the Fund was created about two decades ago to strengthen the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act  established in 2003; to which contributions are been made by shipping lines and ship owners; and to which the federal government by design is expected to contribute a percentage.

Controversy has however dodged the status of the CVFF as different administrations in the past sixteen years have reduced the Fund and its disbursement into a political project, continually throwing spanners on every proposed timeframe to disburse the Fund.

While local shipping capacity development have thus suffered unpardonable neglect and steady decline over the years with foreigners dominating the industry, the Presidency and NIMASA have mastered the act of playing the mouse and cat game in frustrating the fund’s disbursement; which actual sum and where about has remained at the realm of conjecture.

Rather than address this most important, front line burning issue, Mobereola spoke instead of effort by his administration to automate ship registration and to worry about sectoral capacity inclusiveness; whatever that means.

This is despite that stakeholders raised the alarm that Nigeria is losing a staggering USD1 trillion annually to non-disbursement of the CVFF during a meeting he had with them on Thursday at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island Lagos.

Respected maritime lawyer, Barr. Emeka Akabogu, who fired the first salvo said the country was losing USD4 billion to lack of local marine transportation, even as he indentified three sub trade mix namely shipping, fleet expansion, ship building and repairs; which he said are controlled by foreigners.

He also lamented poor local participation in international freight services and the fishing sub-sector of the marine and blue economy.

“Nigeria’s coastal resources have an estimated capacity of $504 trillion. Current realised capacity is $106 trillion in export and import on frozen fish is $876 million,” he stated.

According to Akabugo, the immediate past DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh said recently that Nigeria loses approximately $25.5 billion annually to illegal maritime activities, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited loses $1.35 billion on oil bunkering.

The maritime lawyer informed that January 2024 to date, while the number of registered ships in Nigeria is estimated at 4419 with a total tonnage of, 5.8 billion, 18 foreign owned ships plying our waters has gross tonnage of 125million.

“Summary of the valid registered vessel, 2136 with a 4.2 billion gross tonnage, invalid registered ship, 61, cabotage registered vessel, 1033, with a gross tonnage of 1.9 million. The foreign-owned vessel, 18 with a gross tonnage of 125 million,” he added.

Also the outspoken former DG NIMASA, Barr. Temisan Omatseye expressed doubt on the capacity of the agency to be able to disburse the CVFF, citing conflict of interests as reasons.

“By the CVFF, NIMASA is doing the risk assessment but the disbursing does not allow an outsider to do the risk assessment as it negates the law that binds the funding,” Omatseye said.

According to him, the law says there is to be a CVFF and the fund is to be disbursed in line with the guidelines as issued by the Minister of Transportation and approved by the National Assembly.

On his part, Mobereola while listing his priority attention to include the automation of ship registration gender inclusion, note that other areas will also be looked into.

He said “Some of the things we have in mind have been said here. There is going to be automation of the Ship Registry, and I assure you it is going to happen very quickly. The gender inclusion is something that we are going to seriously look into.

He said he was particularly happy that all the directors of the agency were present as they are going to go back to the agency to put all that have been discussed to practice.

“Most importantly, I am very glad that the directors of NIMASA are present because what we have learnt today we are going to go back and develop objectives, goals, and strategies and we are all going to do it together because we are going to move the sector forward, move the industry forward. We have to align with the vision of the President and the Minister to actualize the purpose of the marine and blue economy.”

Mobereola added that the purpose of the gathering was for him and his team to listen to industry stakeholders on how best to move the industry forward, and that all they said would be put to good use.

”Our purpose here for this forum is to come and listen and I can tell you we have taken notes of all the comments, and I assure you that all that have been said here is going to be put into consideration when we are developing our plan for the first four years so that there would be no exclusivity. We are all going to do it together.

“The purpose of NIMASA is to serve the industry, and we cannot decide what is good for the industry unless the Industry is working with us in order for us to have strong partnerships to be able to excel.

“Ship owners, every aspect of the professionals, practitioners that have said something, challenges, and also proffered solutions, you can be rest assured that all these points that have been raised would be looked at, considered, and put into our strategy so that there would be a sustainable plan for the maritime sector,” the new DG NIMASA said.