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Steve Agbota
National President of National Council of Managing Directors of Customs Licensed Agents (NCMDCLA), Lucky Amiwero, has said the recent Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) approved by the Federal Government must be audited before the fund is being disbursed to indigenous shipping operators.
The fund which has been in the custody of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NMASA) and warehoused by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a figure which ship owners are contradicting.
The CVFF scheme was created in 2003. Since then, indigenous ship owners have been waiting to benefit from the fund despite several promises by the government.
The accumulated fund represents a two per cent contribution by indigenous ship owners on every contract executed in the nation’s maritime sector.
The fund was established under the Cabotage and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003 to provide finance to operators to maintain their vessels or purchase new ones.
According to the Act establishing the fund, the Minister of Transportation is empowered to establish guidelines for the disbursement of the fund to eligible operators.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Amiwero said that the first thing to do before the disbursement was to study the fund to know the actual amount because that fund has been there since 2003.
“If you have a fund that has been domiciled without utilisation since 2003, such fund must be audited before it can be disbursed.
‘‘If you look at the Cabotage Act, it actually gives room for amendment. When you look at that area too, we are not faring well. You look at ship expansion programme we are not doing well.”
Looking at the area of indegenous operators to build capacity, he hinted that Nigeria has three laws, which included NIMASA Act, Cabotage Act and Local Content Act, adding that the three Acts are supposed to generate employment and create wealth but all these are not implemented.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had in the past told ship owners that as long as he remained in charge, the funds would not be disbursed, citing several excuses.
But after receiving directives from President Muhammadu Buhari, Amaechi assured stakeholders recently that he would be meeting with all the heads of agencies under the ministry next to know their plans for the fund. He added that there would also be another meeting with the agencies again in January.
