Nigeria: LCCI flays foreign domination of maritime sector

LCCI flays foreign domination of maritime sector
Taiwo Hassan August 2, 2018 https://newtelegraphonline.com/author/newtelegraphonlinegmail-com/

Foreign players have continued to dominate Nigeria’s marine space at the detriment of indigenous ship owners, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Babatunde Ruwase, has lamented.

In a chat with New Telegraph in Lagos, he also has put the value of Nigerian trade with the rest of the world at over $60 billion in 2017.

The trade volume is one of the highest in the Africa, he added.

However, despite the huge trade investment recorded last year, the LCCI boss pointed out that indigenous ship owners did not benefit.

Currently, he said Nigeria’s maritime sector is not geared towards assisting in boosting the capacity of local ship operators, stressing that this is the reason for the gap in capacity building of local content in the marine, oil and gas industries.

Besides, Ruwase explained that under normal circumstance, the huge trade volume should impact positively on all facets of maritime economy, adding that foreign firms were the ones getting most of the jobs there while indigenous ship operators scramble for menial jobs.

The LCCI president stressed that currently, the maritime sector was almost 90 per cent foreign when indigenous ship operators should be the ones taking the lead.

He stressed the need to turnaround events aligning to giving out marine jobs to foreign players given the developmental value of indigenous participation in the Nigerian shipping sector.

Ruwase said that the association was aware of various developmental policies aimed at developing and increasing indigenous participation in Nigerian shipping industry in a bid to fast-track local content development

The LCCI boss observed that implementation of the policies had negated the realisation of the objective.

Meanwhile, the policies and regulations enacted over the years by the Federal Government include the National Shipping Policy Act of 1987-2003, the Coastral and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003-2007, the Cabotage Implementation Guideline of 2007, the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) Guideline, the NIMASA Act 2007, the Merchant Shipping Act and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010.

Ruwase said: “The value of Nigerian trade with the rest of the world was over $60 billion in 2017. This should normally impact on the maritime economy.

“This volume of trade is one of the highest in the Africa. Regrettably, the indigenous ship owners are not beneficiaries of this story. Foreign players have completely dominated the space.

“Given the developmental value of indigenous participation in any sector, we would like to stress the need to scale up indigenous participation in the Nigerian shipping sector.

“The sector is almost 90 per cent foreign. Am aware that there have been several policies put in place to ensure the realisation of this objective, but implementation has been a big issue.”

He, however, stated that LCCI would continue to engage the relevant organs of government as issues develop in line with its advocacy activity to move Nigeria business environment forward.

“Our advocacy activity is a continuous one. We will continue to engage the relevant organs of government as issues develop,” he said.

“We have a collective duty (along with other stakeholders) to ensure a better investment environment for the progress of the Nigerian economy and the good of everyone.”