Daily Champion (Lagos)
30 October 2009
Lagos — An NGO, Maritime Industry Advocacy Initiative (MAIN), says it is worried over the delay in the passage of the Port Amendment Bill into law by the National Assembly.
The group's National Executive Director, Mr Sesan Onileimo said at a meeting on Thursday in Lagos that the organisation thought the House of Representatives would have passed the bill after it organised a public hearing in July, 2009 on the matter.
Onileimo said that stakeholders in the industry were worried that the draft bill was yet to be passed three years after certain major operations at the ports were handed over to private operators.
Said he: "But rather than meet the yearnings of majority of members of the shipping community, it has been an endless wait for the National Assembly", adding particularly that the Marine Transport committees should press for the passage of the bill,"
He said that the absence of a new set of statutes to protect the investments of private port operators and also guide post-concession interplays had been causing anxieties within the port system.
Onileimo said that the Maritime Transport committees of both chambers of the National Assembly should emulate their predecessors by giving the maritime sector a new set of laws as done between 1999 and 2007.
"Both the Cabotage Act and the Act for the establishment of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria were passed in record time in addition to several other nationalistic interventions," the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes him saying.
He suggested that the committees should also look into other bills presently in various stages of legislation to ensure that such bills pass through the first and second readings.
On the issue of ship acquisition, Onileimo said that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) should demonstrate convincing willingness to facilitate the purchase of new ships for indigenous ship owners.
According to him, it is shocking that while proceeds from the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund have not been disbursed in the last couple of years, NIMASA announced that it has secured a loan of $200 million for Nigerian ship owners.
He expressed concern as to how and when NIMASA intended to assist Nigerian ship owners to access the funds.
Onileimo also expressed concern over an attempt by the Federal Government to create a post-amnesty maritime security outfit.
He said that such an outfit might threaten the existence of NIMASA, adding that it might also add to the cost of shipping consignments into the country.
He said that the NGO, which was established three months ago, was meant to protect the interests of stakeholders.
"The organisation will serve as the watchdog of the maritime industry and network amongst industry players.
"It is expected to feel the pulse of operators and pass it to government agencies and the Federal Ministry of Transport," NAN quotes Onileimo as saying.
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