The Nigeria Shipowners Association (NISA) said the coming onstream of its proposed shipping line will create over 50,000 seafaring jobs and contribute billions of naira in revenue to the nation’s economy.
NISA, which decried that Nigeria is losing money for not positioning its ship owners to take up opportunities in the shipping business, said ship owners must position themselves to take Nigerian seafarers out of the unemployment market.
Speaking at the association’s general meeting held in Lagos recently, Josiah Wasa, a member of NISA, bemoaned the fact that Nigerian-owned shipping companies are not found among the top 1,000 shipping companies in the world, which is a shame for a maritime nation.
He said NISA must put a structure in place to take charge of international and local shipping business in the country, and be recognised among the top 100 shipping lines in the world.
Wasa said that the NISA shipping line has been registered years back and was to be operated as a public company that would bring in shareholders on board.
“NISA shipping line should have been lifting crude because the association has gotten Samsung to give it vessel but the effort was scuttled along the line,” he added.
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Isaac Jolapamo, chairman of the Board of Trustees of NISA, who frowned at the fact that Nigeria has only three ship owners that are flourishing, said NISA members were the foremost contributors to the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) but the government has excluded ship owners from benefiting from the fund.
He said NISA needs to form a solid force to be able to take its pride of place in the shipping industry.
“We got the Cabotage Act to be passed into law. We also got the past governments to give recognition to NISA or even when it was ISAN and I believe we can still do it again,” Jolapamo said.
According to him, NISA has lost out to the present government and needs to hold an election before the end of the year in order to constitute new executives that would move the association forward.
“We must not allow NISA to die. There is a need to chart a new way forward. The main issue is how to bring back the association to take its pride of place in the maritime industry. We need to reposition NISA before the next government comes into power,” he said.
Adewale Ishola, another member, who called on members to rally around the BOT to save NISA from crumbling, said the association needs to go for reconciliation.
He pointed out that ship owners need to push for the change of Nigeria’s trade policy from Free on Board to Cost, Insurance, and Freight in order to improve the opportunities available for Nigerian ship owners to participate in the crude oil lifting business.
“We are not doing things right. We should have been carrying our cargoes and not foreigners but we can only be heard if we form a strong force,” Ishola said.
Emmanuel Ilorin, another member, said a house that is divided cannot stand, adding that the challenges facing the association are enormous, which it cannot deal with unless it reconciles with the aggrieved members.
He called for reconciliation before going for election in order to put an end to the actions of people who are undermining the association.
Sonny Omatseye, chairman of the NISA Steering Committee, gave the report of the committee, and also suggested the need for the association to hold an election.
The association however inaugurated a 6-man committee with the mandate to bring back its aggrieved members and others who exited the embattled association in the past.
The committee members include Emmanuel Ilorin, Akin Akinyemi, Adewale Ishola, Paul Omolodun, Edmund Martins, and one outsider in the person of Olayiwola Shittu, the former president of the Association Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents.
The committee was given three weeks to reunite the association with its former corporate and individual members.
