The Federal Government will soon unveil incentives to enable indigenous ship owners to acquire and maintain ships that can compete favourably with foreign-owned vessels, Emmanuel Jime, the executive secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has said.
Jime, who disclosed this last week when he hosted executives of the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) in his office in Apapa, Lagos, listed the incentives to include zero import duty on vessels, abolition of the controversial temporary importation permit payable to the Nigeria Customs Service and setting up of a Shipping Sector Support Fund.
“Ship ownership is central in the maritime industry. If Nigeria is actually going to take its rightful place and be recognised as a maritime hub, then ship ownership would become topical as far as the industry is concerned.
Unless, the Nigerian ship owning community grows and becomes competitive enough to take centre stage in shipping activities, Nigeria will not derive maximum value from the maritime industry,” Jime, who doubles as the chairman of the Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee, said.
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According to him, the Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee has been saddled with the responsibilities of mobilising the public and private sectors in a bid to establish a strong ship ownership community in the country.
“We have also been mandated to develop a framework that would support the establishment of a sustainable Nigerian Fleet and to develop strategies that will incentivise. We are to rollout the action that would encourage the development of shipbuilding and ship repair facilities, and provide guidelines as well as make recommendations to grow the maritime manpower capacity,” he added.
Earlier, Sunday Omatseye, the chairman of NISA Steering Committee, said the purpose of the visit was to partner with the Council to lift the position of Nigerian ship owners.
