Fiery rights activist and Convener of the elite Maritime Elders FORUM, Elder Asu Beks, has challenged Marine and Blue Economy Minister , Chief Adegboyega Oyetola, to compel the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to immediately commence the disbursement of Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund. He also wants Oyetola to compel NIMASA to deploy the N50b floating dock which has been laying idle for years.
In open letter to the Minister over the weekend, Asu, who is Publisher of Nigeria’s flagship Maritime journal, Shipping World, said it is completely unacceptable that the current leadership at NIMASA has not offered any timeline for disbursement of the CVFF, neither has there been an official explanation as to the reasons behind the inability to put the multi billion facility into use, years after it took delivery of the floating dock. Asu also urged Oyetola to expedite action on the proposed Shipping and Ports Economic Regulatory Agency bill currently awaiting concurrence at the Senate,having been passed into law by the House of Representatives in July last year. The coastal and Inland Shipping ( Cabotage) Act was enacted on April 30, 2023. It was the first Cabotage law enacted in the West and Central African subregion. The Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, which is a component of the Cabotage Act provides for financial assistance to local Shipowners. The goal is to increase the number of ships owned by Nigerians and to develop the local Maritime industry. The CVFF is funded by a 2 per cent surcharge on the contract sum of vessels that trade in Nigeria’s coastal waters. The fund also receives money from tariffs, fines and fees for licenses and waivers. There has been concerns over the transparency on the administration of the fund which was established 22 years. In 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the disbursement of the Fund which stood at N16b and $365m at the time .
To facilitate disbursement, the then Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Yusuf Jamoh had announced the appointment of five primary lending institutions(PLIs) to include Zenith , Union , Polaris and Jaiz banks .But actual disbursements did not see the light of the day until the tenure of Dr Bashir Jamoh expired in March, 2024. Below is the full text of the letter to Chief Adegboyega Oyetola
Your Excellency, sir. I hope this letter meets you well, and in a perfect health. We give God the glory for your life and your measured accomplishments, especially as Governor of the State of Osun and as pioneer Minister of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
This is my second letter since your assumption of duty. My first coincided with your first anniversary as Minister of Marine and Blue Economy. Your Excellency, there is no doubt that you came highly recommended given your pedigree as a former Governor and an accomplished captain of Nigeria’s insurance industry.
In my first letter to you last year, I enumerated a few of the challenges and opportunities which lay ahead as you navigate through these stormy waters. Your Excellency, sir, you are also lucky to find yourself in an industry blessed with a pool of highly skilled and talented professionals whose passion for the country is legendary. Sir, I recall drawing your attention to some low hanging fruits which you could harvest from and how these will boost the confidence of the global community. For instance, I drew your attention to the need revive the moribund Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF, which has been in limbo since inception. The prompt disbursement of this fund has the potential to galvanize Nigerian shipowners and may make them occupy their proper place among their peers in the global business space.
Your Excellency sir, it is totally unacceptable that the disbursement of the CVFF had, over the years, been plagued with unpardonable excuses by those statutorily empowered to effect its disbursement. It is a shame that for more than 60 years since oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, we have continued to rely on foreign shipowners who dominate the export of oil crude. Sir, I find it difficult to reconcile the inability of previous occupants of your office to tackle this issue expeditiously. As a concerned stakeholder , I am yet to see any appreciable commitment by the current leadership of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, whose duty it is to midwife the process.
After almost a year in office, the current management team at NIMASA are yet to come up with any modalities or timelines for the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund. Your Excellency, sir, it is your responsibility, as the supervising Minister to make team NIMASA realize how the prompt release of this fund will turn around the fortunes of Nigerian economy. It is totally unacceptable that NIMASA is offering Nigerians a graveyard silence on such an important issue. Your Excellency, sir, it is true that after several weeks and months of deliberation, the final draft of the policy document of the Marine and Blue Economy is out and has been validated. But the said document, it appears, has not been subjected to extensive public scrutiny. For now, majority of stakeholders are yet to have official copies of the document.
May I humbly request, Your Excellency, sir, that the Research and Documentation unit of your Ministry should be asked to print and distribute copies of the document to critical stakeholders. Sir, are you also not disturbed that a critical asset such as the N50 billion NIMASA Floating Dock is yet to be put to use since it was acquired? Maybe the only plausible explanation anyone can give on this issue is that “Government property is no one’s property”. In saner climes, heads would have been rolling.
Your Excellency, sir, I will not conclude this letter without a mention of The Shipping and Ports Economic Regulatory Agency Authority Bill which was recently passed into law by the House of Representatives and awaiting concurrence in the Senate. We are aware that the Nigerian maritime domain is the only sector without regulation. We must, however, express our profound appreciation to you for mobilizing stakeholders in support of the bill which subsequently led to its passage.
About six months have passed since the bill scaled through the lower chamber. It is time, once again, to mobilize towards the expeditions passage of the bill in the Senate. Your Excellency, sir, if you are able to achieve these milestones I have enumerated, your name would have been written in gold.
May the good Lord grant you a more successful year, sir. I remain your humble and loyal citizen, Elder Asu Beks.