ATHENS: The Nigerian Ship Owners Association (NISA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy 40 vessels from a consortium of Greek shipowners for use in its cabotage trade.
The vessels will be of various classes and tonnage, and will all be delivered within the next two years, NISA said. The sale was agreed at a meeting between the two parties held in Lagos, which was attended by Greek owners Constantine Kokkos, Panagiotis Papandopoulus and Dimitris Nomikos, who signed the MOU on behalf of a consortium of shipowners from the country.
Nigeria has founded and will disburse funds from the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to domestic shipping companies with which to acquire vessels. “A total of 600 vessels are operating in oil and gas; and only 10% belongs to Nigerians as at 2015,” said NISA President, Niyi Labinjo, who told press he wishes to grow the country’s domestic fleet to 100 vessels.
Demand for cabotage vessels stems from Nigeria’s Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003, which was instated before the country had a fleet of domestically flagged vessels to put into service.
