The Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association (NISA) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to develop the local shipping industry by making the relevant agencies of government to implement the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act of 2003, otherwise known as the Cabotage Act.
The NISA, which has maintained that the indigenous shipping industry was capable of employing five million people, stressed that faced with the fall in price of oil in the international market and fall in the revenue generation of the federal government, the need to pay more attention to the maritime industry to shore up government’s dwindling revenue has become imperative and inevitable.
The Cabotage Act was enacted in 2003 to help develop the local shipping industry by providing an edge against foreign competitors and financial incentives through the Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF).
The law establishes that no foreign vessels ought to do business in Nigerian waters other than indigenous ships, while offering the local shipping lines the right of first refusal.
However, 12 years later, the Act remained largely unimplemented by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which are arch agencies for the implementation of the Act, with foreign vessels still lifting oil and doing other trades in Nigerian waters, while the local ships languish in iddleness, penury and battling extinction.
The CVFF, which has reached over N60,000 also remained unaccessible by the local shipowners, with ripe allegations that the fund might have been abused by its custodians, the ministry of transport and NIMASA.
At a meeting of the NISA on Wednesday in Lagos, the shipowners agreed to send a proposal to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari on how to enforce the cabotage and raise huge revenue from the maritime industry.
At the meeting which was presided over by its acting president, Alhaji Aminu Umar, the shipowners said that the maritime industry remained the best alternative sector to shore up revenue for the federal government to make up for the shortfall from the oil and gas sector.
Top on the agenda of the proposal to be sent to the government, according to the association, is the implementation of the Cabotage Act.
The NISA members enjoined the federal government to enforce total implementation of the Act for the growth of the maritime industry and for employment generation.
