Esther Oluku
Stakeholders across Nigeria’s shipping industry were at the weekend unanimous in their call for development of Nigeria’s shipping value chain to unlock efficiency in the sector.
They warned that if indigenous players do not take advantage of Nigeria’s growing shipping traffic, foreigners will seize the opportunity, close the gaps and reap the economic benefits.
This submission was raised in the keynote address of the Group Vice President, (Oil, Gas and Fertiliser) Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Edwin Devakumar, at the Member’s Evening of the Nigeria Chamber of Shipping (NCS) themed: “A Public-Private Dialogue with CEOs: Unlocking Efficiency in the Marine and Blue Economy Value Chain,” held in Lagos.
According to him, as Nigeria’s international trade volume expands and with the commencement of application for the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) targeted at providing loan facilities to support acquisition of vessels, Nigeria must move beyond vessel acquisition to developing competences across the entire international shipping value chain.
He explained that vessel acquisition must be tied to cargo availability and a robust shipping business value-chain which ensures that economic value is retained locally across the end to end shipping process.
“The Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund scheme can help to check whether the vessel owners are linked up with the cargo owners, whether they just have vessels or whether they are building up a whole management scheme to support and operate the business. So, it’s not just about one more cargo but more of a shift to build up the whole system,” he said
President, Nigeria Chamber of Shipping, Aminu Umar, said: “The biggest challenge for us as ship owners, is access to capital. There are ships required by Dangote Refinery, most especially for their import, which is delivery of crude oil. Those ships are huge.
“The capital requirement to acquire them is huge, and it is very difficult for we to get that access in our system. Even with the CVFF, we cannot buy those size of vessels. They are in hundreds of millions of dollars. So it’s not possible as the CVFF is already limited to $25 million per ticket.”
In his remarks, founding President of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, noted that the government has a role to play.
“The role of the government is not to give loans because they cannot sustain it. They can create the environment and the funds will be generated. That link between cargo and vessel ownership is very important. Otherwise we would continue to be a cargoless, vesselless county. Others would continue to come and take our cargo,” Agbakoba said.