The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, would inaugurate a special committee next week for the disbursement of the long awaited $350 million (about N151.6 billion) Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) with 11 banks shortlisted for it already.
Since 2007, several ministers of Transportation and heads of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have promised to disburse the CVFF to empower indigenous ship owners to acquire vessels, but that has not happened.
However, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, at a State House Briefing in Abuja on Thursday said the committee will be in place next week.
He said the non-disbursement of the fund has made it difficult for indigenous players to enter into the shipping business meant to absorb the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) cadets. NIMASA has trained 2,041 cadets since 2009, with just 800 of the graduates securing jobs globally.
He also said the federal government has taken steps to ensure that shipment of goods and services to Nigeria from Europe no longer attracts war risk insurance, often leading to high prices of goods and services imported.
He said the Nigerian government had requested shipping companies to give expectations that it must meet to exit the war risk insurance.
Jamoh, who said the country would continue to be rated based on its performance, added that Nigeria is waiting for the report from Lloyd of London to know its current rating.
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He said NIMASA is working with sister agencies and security outfits to address piracy which currently makes Nigeria lose $1bn annually.
He however said since President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Deep Blue Project in June 2021, incidences had dropped from 34 recorded last year to none to date.
The NIMASA DG was discussing with the NNPC to deploy its special mission aircraft to monitor the nation's pipelines as part of the agency's contributions to avert oil theft on the Nigerian waters, and that the personnel for the aircraft are being trained in Italy.
The NIMASA DG at the ongoing Abuja International Trade Fair also said the process leading to the eventual disbursement of the funds had already started, thus that the actual disbursements would definitely happen.
Represented at the event by the Coordinator, Abuja Zonal Office of NIMASA, Mr Zailani Attah, the DG said Nigerian shipping companies needed to buy more vessels because the more vessels "you have as a country, the more you are rated high in international shipping."
He said NIMASA came to the trade fair to sensitise the public on its core mandates, especially as they concerned security, safety, promotion of indigenous shipping and wreckages removal on Nigerian waters.
