The Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) has said government agencies are insensitive to the plight of jobless ship owners. This is even as the association accused government agencies of descending harshly on jobless ship owners with charges and levies, while banks and other financial regulators keep harassing bankrupt ship owners for loans not paid back.
Speaking ahead of the Annual General Meeting/Dinner of the association, President of SOAN, Mr Greg Ogbeifun wondered how foreign vessels got waivers when there were government agencies saddled with the responsibility to ensure such things happen.
According to Ogbeifun, “It has not gone well with indigenous shipping in Nigeria, business-wise. All you need to do to know this is to look at Marina in Lagos; you will see that all the berths are empty. As we are speaking, about 12 vessels loaded with rice are waiting offshore Cotonou, waiting to discharge. Those ports are very busy, ours are empty.
“In this country, our cabotage trade is getting worse. People like me are finding it very difficult to stay afloat because of draconian charges from government agencies. At SOAN, we have computed the total levies and charges ship owners are made to pay for one ship. That alone is enough to kill your business, particularly if you have no jobs.
“Ship owners have not seen any measurable interest from government. Imagine, as a government agency working closely with ship owners, and knowing the ship owners have no contract, is such government agency not suppose to engage the ship owner to know its challenges? Is such government agency not supposed to look at how the ship owner survives? But what do we have? More levies, more charges!
“So, government agencies need to know more about our business, and how we do it to survive; because if we go under, it affects a whole lot of people and the economy itself.”
On the loans collects by shipowners from financial institutions, the SOAN President explained that shipowners are being harassed by the Asset Management Company Of Nigeria (AMCON) because they are defaulting in loan payment.
“As regards loans collected from the banks, we are defaulting, the banks are threatening us, AMCON is harassing us, but what can we do?