Local Shipowners Lament As Foreign Counterparts Querry NIMASA Certificate

Indigenous shipowners, on Tuesday, raised the alarm that foreign shipowners set questionable parameters to scheme out local operators from participating in Ship To Ship (STS) transfer in the nation’s coastal waters.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP, the former Lagos State Coordinator, Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA), Captain Taiwo Akinpelumi, said if the Nigerian Marítime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), certify vessels for coastal operation, foreign shipowners shouldn’t set questionable parameters.

Capt. Akinpelumi who is also the head of Operations & Logistics, Oceanic Energy Limited, stated that the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should ensure that any vessel with NIMASA certificate for STS operation shouldn’t be rejected by foreign vessels.

“Foreign vessel owners bring other vessels to do STS and they come up with questionable requests that is not applicable in our waters. For instance, if NIMASA has certified any vessel to be seaworthy, foreign vessels have no right to say a vessel is not sea worthy because it is the responsibility of the flag administration to regulate standards of a vessel. The modern vessels set parameters to scheme out the local operators.

“We try to report to say and we formed NISA marshal to say we are monitoring foreign vessels that come to our waters because if we are talking about Cabotage trade its not only about Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) disbursement but ensuring that there is exclusivity for all these Cabotage goods and services for the indigenous operators to play but when foreign vessels come to struggle the jobs with us is actually getting us to where we are today,” he stated.

He stated further that indigenous operators have capacity to lift crude and also perform STS successfully.

“The problems emanated from the inability of indigenous operators to have access to contracts from Major Oil Companies including NNPC. Major Oil companies fail to patronise indigenous operators. If major Oil companies like NNPC decide to give contracts to indigenous operators to provide vessels, with the contracts taken to the bank, the banks seeing that there is cargo will be able to stake their money in financing them.

“Practice makes perfect, if they are saying local operators don’t have capacity, it is not right. We need to keep doing something to build capacity because there are some local operators who are personally managing their freight and they are doing it excellently well,” the shipowner who pleaded anonymity stated.

He continued, “A situation whereby we say indigenous operators’ vessels are not good, they are rust buckets, not seaworthy but, when there is no cargo, when they lack contract,  how will they compete?” he asked rhetorically.

“Vessels are built and bought to finance, take care and maintain themselves. It is the money that comes from the services provided that they use to look after the vessel. The indigenous operators are deprived of contracts. Foreign vessel owners bring other vessels to do Ship To Ship (STS) transfer, and they come up with questionable requests that are not applicable in our waters,” he stated.

Capt. Akinpelumi lamented that if indigenous operators have capacity, Nigeria won’t be spending much on training Seafarers abroad.

“We are losing huge capital flight, you see how much the agency is spending on training of Seafarers but if indigenous shipowners are allowed, they are given the right of first refusal. If indigenous players are giving exclusivity to the cargoes, all the seafarers training abroad will stop and they will be able to approach indigenous operators to say “we will give you incentives, train 5 or 10 cadets for us.” He continued, “we can’t train cadets without vessels and that’s the area to look at because when seafarers are gainfully employed and working, they will pay taxes, royalty to their home country.

“Also, if they are collecting levy, fee for licence from two vessels if they increase to 10 or 20 can they quantify the geometric progression of revenue that will be generated and all that. They are interconnected, if they allow capacity to be built and if indigenous operators’ businesses are healthy, they will employ Nigerians to work in their offices onboard their ships and pay necessary taxes, these are the losses the nation is suffering,” Capt. Akinpelumi lamented.