Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Dayo Mobereola, on Monday dashed the hopes of Nigerian Ship Owners who had wished for an early disbursement of the controversial Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, when he hinted of a possible review of the entire process.
Mobereola who spoke at an interactive Session with Nigeria’s mainstream Maritime Media said Government was very conscious of the mistakes made during the moribund Ship Acquisition and Building Fund and was therefore not prepared repeat the same mistakes. The regime of Dr Bashir Jamoh was in the process of making disbursement of the CVFF and had even appointed five Primary Lending Institutions, PLIs before he ran out his tenure . The bone of contention during discussions between Jamoh and the PLIs was whether the lending rates would be a single or double digit with the former NIMASA helmsman insisting on a single. Another bone of contention was a requirement that Shipowners would be required to pay a mandatory down payment of 15 percent of their loan application.
According to Dr Mobereola , the Tinubu administration is wiser and would not embark on the same trajectory when the idea of a Shipping building fund was initiated by late Gen Sani Abacha. Mobereola who refused to disclose the amount so for collected under the 18 years old scheme however dismissed insinuations in certain circles that the money may have developed wings, when he said “the money is intact and with the Federal Government .” Mobereola claimed that under the Ship building and acquisition fund, beneficiaries did not utilize the loans for the purpose they were meant. Speaking on the status of the N50b NIMASA floating dock, he argued that the original plan to deploy it to Okerenkoko was not well thought out even though he did not offer any explanation to what informed his opinion . He explained that Management of the Agency was currently exploring better options on how , when and where to deploy the floating dock