After diverting the initial monies accumulated in the much awaited Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) into building maritime faculties in about six universities in Nigeria as well as the Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Delta State, the Federal Government said it’s ready to apply the over $200 million accumulated fund into the acquisition of vessels, which was the real reason for setting it up.
The CVFF was established alongside the Nigerian Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003, to empower indigenous ship owners to take control of the nation’s coastal and inland shipping business, otherwise known as Cabotage trade.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos on Thursday after an engagement with Cabotage Operators in Nigeria over the disbursement of CVFF, Chibuike Amaechi, minister of transportation said that before the current administration that monies accumulated in the CVFF was applied to building university,faculty of maritime in different Nigerian universities.
“This was the first time or about the first time that we will apply that money to ship owners directly. We have agreed to set up a committee that would be chaired by the director general of NIMASA, and comprised of other stakeholders. They would come up with guidelines for disbursement of the fund, which will be taken to the National Assembly for approval,” he said.
According to Amaechi, it is the committee that would determine whether the interest rate for repayment of the disbursed funds would be single digit or not.
Emphasising that the responsibility and risk for managing the fund would be transferred to lending institutions to ensure that nobody walks away with the fund, Amaechi stated that the financial institution would ensure that ship owners meet the criteria for accessing the fund.
He said that the idea was to enhance the development of the maritime industry by ensuring that ship owners are able to borrow funds responsibly, and return to enable others to borrow. “The more vessels we acquire, the more persons we create employment for and the more we grow our economy.”
The Minister also noted that the committee would determine the percentage interest to be inserted in the procurement of CVFF.
Dakuku Peterside, director general of NIMASA and head of the committee to develop the guidelines, said, that the minister has gotten the approval of Mr. President to disburse the CVFF.
“After extensive discussions with stakeholders here, it was decided that the committee should come up with the draft guidelines. The Minister would study this draft and pass on to the National Assembly for approval in line with the Cabotage Act. Thereafter, we would move to the next phase of actual disbursement using the banks as platform to be disbursed,” Peterside said.
Peterside said that two factors would determine how soon the actual disbursement of CVFF takes place.
“One factor will be how soon the National Assembly approves the draft guidelines and the other factor would be that the provisions of the guidelines will have to be followed religiously by the participating banks. Stakeholders have to meet these requirements before the disbursement of CVFF,” he said.
Members of the committee constituted to develop the disbursement guidelines include: Temisan Omatseye, former director general of NIMASA; Margaret Orakwusi, chairperson, Nigerian Ship-owners Forum, and Aminu Umar, managing director, Sea Transport Services Nigeria Limited, among others.
Margret Orakwusi, member of the committee pointed out that the need for the committee in drafting the guideline to be specific on the interest rate, duration of the loan to determine and the category of vessels to be acquired using the fund in order not be misused the funds.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
