The Indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria has said that the country is losing about $2tn (N300tn) in capital flight annually to foreign ship owners operating in Nigerian waters.
The General Secretary of the association, Capt. Niyi Labinjo, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday that the loss was due to the influx of foreign vessels illegally involved in coastal trade in Nigeria
He said the invasion of the cabotage trade by foreign ship owners had cost huge losses, including unemployment to many Nigerian seafarers.
Labinjo said, “By also not engaging Nigerians in the transportation of refined petroleum products, the nation is losing severally.
“If the indigenous ship owners are allowed to participate effectively in the coastal trade, Nigeria can have about five million citizens employed as seafarers.’’
He said that many vessels that could not work in Europe and Asia where there was stiff enforcement of regulations were now found in Nigeria.
He expressed regret over the non-enforcement of laws on the cabotage regime.
Labinjo said that some people in government had failed to understand the implications of not giving Nigerian the job of transporting petroleum products.
He said, “Allowing foreign ship owners to bring more tankers and offshore support vessels into the country will compound unemployment situation among Nigerian operators.
“By also not engaging Nigerians in transportation of refined petroleum products, the nation is losing severally.’’
The ISOAN general secretary said that over 800 million barrels of refined petroleum products were being lifted annually by vessels belonging to foreign ship owners.
“Yet, Nigeria does not have a single national carrier to carry the commodity,’’ he said.
Labinjo said that many local shipping firms had closed shops because of the dominance of the shipping industry by foreign operators.
“Sometimes, my company does not do a job in nine months with our five vessels, but we are resilient despite that.’’
He advised the Federal Government to evolve a maritime culture for the country since 76 per cent of shipping activities in the West African sub-region were taking place in Nigeria.
“Nigeria imports 100 million tonnes of general cargo annually and 65 million litres of fuel,” he disclosed.
Labinjo advised that government to be more interested in developments in the maritime industry.
Original post:
‘Nigeria loses N300tn annually to foreign ship owners’