Indigenous ship owners under the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) have accused the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) of tossing ship owners around like babies under the guise of working towards the disbursement of the over $200 million Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
This is coming on the heels of the revelation by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi that the ship owners should write to protest against the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning for refusing to disburse the CVFF despite a presidential approval that the funds should be disbursed.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, a cross-section of the indigenous ship owners, who wouldn’t want to have their names in print, explained that just some few months ago, NIMASA had stated publicly that the CVFF fund is a public fund and is not owned by the indigenous ship owners.
According to the ship owners, “Recently, NIMASA during a media briefing said the money is a government fund. That statutorily, since they collect the money from ship-owners on behalf of the government, it is a public fund. Now the Minister of Transportation is asking us to write a letter of protest as owners of the fund. Who is fooling who?
“When NIMASA had already said publicly that the money is a government fund, on what basis are we going to write to protest that the Minister of Finance does not want the money disbursed? A month ago, NIMASA said the CVFF fund is a government fund. A month later, the Minister of Transportation said we should write as owners of the fund. Are we babies? It’s like they have forgotten from whose people they collected the money.
“For the past two years, all our correspondence to NIMASA have not been replied. Even the Minister of Transportation has not replied to any of our letters to him on this issue. Why does he prefer to talk to the media about it and deliberately refuse to respond to letters sent to him on it?”
Also speaking to the Nigerian Tribune on the matter, President of SOAN, Dr. MKGeorge Onyung explained that the group is currently reviewing the minister’s statement and will come out with a position paper soon.
“We are currently reviewing the minister’s statement on the CVFF and why it has not been disbursed and will come out with a position paper soon,” the SOAN President told the Nigerian Tribune.
Established alongside the Nigerian Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003, the CVFF is a collection of two per cent surcharge of the contract sum performed by any vessel engaged in the coastal trade in Nigerian waters and should be disbursed as loans in order to empower indigenous ship owners to take control of the nation’s coastal and inland shipping business, otherwise known as Cabotage trade.
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