The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has disclosed plans by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Ministry of Finance to create a special tariff for vessel acquisition. Dakuku Peterside, director-general of NIMASA, stated this on the sidelines of the ongoing Oil Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, USA.
“The high cost of vessel acquisition is gradually edging out a lot of indigenous players in the maritime sector,” Peterside said, adding that NIMASA was going all out to reverse the trend.
He explained that the agency was already in talk with the NCS and the Finance Ministry to ensure that a special tariff window was created for vessel acquisition, as part of efforts to build capacity and create jobs for Nigerians in the maritime sector.
He decried the situation whereby foreign vessels pay a paltry 1 percent for temporal import permit to bring vessels into the country to do their business and go away, and their indigenous counterparts who were not operating the vessel on temporal basis pay 13 percent was a disincentive to local operators.
‘‘The maritime sector is a capital intensive one and the cost of accessing fund is equally high. So, to encourage our indigenous players to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts, we must ensure that we crash the cost of doing business. And that is why we are engaging the Customs and the Finance Ministry on a special tariff for vessel acquisition.’’
He disclosed that talks are at an advanced stage by NIMASA and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to arrange a single digit interest rate for vessel acquisition.
The acquisition of the vessel at single digit interest rate, according to Peterside would go a long way in increasing the number of vessels owned and operated by indigenous operators.
On Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), the NIMASA DG said that the agency is currently reviewing the guidelines for accessing the CVFF. The CVFF is a two-per cent deduction backed by law, for every carriage contract, from shipping operators.
‘‘We are also supporting our local players in other areas. Ultimately, we want to grow the Nigerian tonnage and encourage more Nigerians to own vessels and be active in the industry. We want more persons to be skilled and employable in the industry.
‘‘ I think the bigger picture is to secure the funds so that more Nigerians can be able to access the fund which has swelled to over $150 million. This money should be able to help us crash the cost of accessing funds in acquisition of assets and building infrastructure for the maritime industry.’’
