CVFF Deployment: No Plans To Procure National Carrier says Mobereola
The Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola, has made clarifications on trending issues concerning the deployment of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) saying that the Agency has no plans to deploy the fund towards procuring a National carrier.
Mobereola made the submission during a media parley with Maritime journalists in Lagos earlier today.
He equally asserted that instead, the Agency is looking towards broadening the scope of the fund to include not just indigenous shipping fleet expansion but strengthening the trading capacity of indigenous players by ensuring freight availability and increasing their competitive advantage in the international Maritime scene.
Also, clearing the air on the availability of the fund amidst it’s prolonged disbursement, he assured stakeholders that the fund is still present and domiciled with the Federal Government.
He said: “The CVFF as at today is with the federal government and it is for our own use. It is for the use of the ship owners.
“It is not being touched. It is not a revenue. It is a contribution towards the development of the Nigerian shipping industry and ship owners.
“That is recognised. That is what it is going to be used for. As long as we come back with the fine tuned guidelines on how to use it and when to use it which we have been working on.
“CVFF should move in a way that it is enlarged so that we can leverage on it. The issue of having a Nigerian carrier is not going to happen.
“We should all agree from previous experience that we should not go the way of having a Nigerian shipping line owned by the government.
“We should go the way of the agencies and government creating an enabling environment to encourage the private ship owners to have vessels which we can ascribe as Nigerian flagged vessels and is supported by Nigerians, the government and encouraged to carry Nigerian goods both inwards and outwards, where Nigerian flagged vessels can sail internationally to all the countries of the world which you and I would be proud of and all of that will come to place.
“We are also exploring other avenues in ensuring that CVFF is not only used for CVFF but enlarged to be of benefit to the country and all of that is what we are working on.”
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