SHIP Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), has said that due to foreign ships bringing in Nigeria’s petroleum products at the ports, the nation lost about $700million in 2021 and has already lost about $600million in 2022 due to menace of capital flight.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, President of SOAN, Dr. MkGeorge Onyung explained that if the country wishes to get her economy right, then much attention needs to be paid to shipping services.
According to Dr. Onyung: “Last year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) brought in about 400 shipment of PMS. Each shipment cost $1.5m Dollars. That is, for each ship to bring in those 400 cargoes of PMS to Nigeria lst year, they collected $1.5m Dollars each. This year alone, the NNPC has already brought in about 260 shipment of PMS. The price for this year is slightly higher than last year. Each shipment cost Nigeria $2m Dollars. All the ships bringing in this PMS are foreign owned ships. None are owned by Nigerians.
“What does this imply? It implies that this year alone, Nigeria has lost about $600,000 million Dollars to capital flight during the process of bringing in PMS. Every day, ships bring in PMS to Nigeria. Every time a ship calls at our port with PMS, Nigeria loses $2million Dollars. About 260 shipments have come this year, that is about 600,000million Dollars gone through capital flight.
“If Nigerians have ships, that money will stay in our economy. This is not rocket science. Its as simple as ABC. Our economy is on an emergency as we speak. The new Minister of Transportation needs to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) right away to save the economy of these losses.
“The amount of foreign exchange that Nigeria is losing due to bringing in of PMS into the country is alarming. The new Minister of Transportation needs to do something about this.
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“We will soon be meeting with him, and when we do, we will draw up strategies towards the disbursement of the CVFF because our economy is currently on an emergency. Nigeria is losing so much money via capital flight.
“The Honourable Minister of Transportation has been meeting with all stakeholders since he assumed office, but he is yet to meet with Indigenous ship owners.
“The Fleet Implementation Committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Transportation will be meeting in Abuja very soon, and we understand the Minister will be preciding over that meeting. I am a member of that committee, same with few indigenous shipowners. It will be an opportunity for us to meet the Minister and discuss issues surrounding the CVFF
“That the Minister said at the weekend that the fund will soon be disbursed is a welcome development. But we need to meet with him to draw up a strategy over how the fund should be disbursed.”