By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), says it will continue to engage the Federal Government to ensure that the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) is disbursed to deserving indigenous shipping operators.
Speaking to pressmen during the Harmonised Stakeholders Interactive Forum in Lagos at the weekend, Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, said the agency was doing all within its power for the release of the funds, noting that it was engaging with the Transport Ministry and other stakeholders who have a role to play in disbursing CVFF.
“The CVFF was established by law and there is a prescribed way of accessing the fund and there are those who have the final power of approval to enable you access the fund. NIMASA is doing what it should do and we too have joined in pushing for early release of funds once stakeholders comply with prescribed ways of accessing it.
“The more Nigerians get involved in shipping, the more they benefit and the more we create wealth for the people and so we are pushing for the disbursement of CVFF and we are engaging with the Minister of Transportation and other stakeholders that have a role to play in the disbursement of CVFF, and I am assuring stakeholders that I believe that very soon we will disburse CVFF,” he stated.
Re-echoing the DG’s statement, Executive Director, Operations, NIMASA, Rotimi Fasakin, said the challenge with the fund has to do with the strict guidelines for its disbursement, adding that the agency has forwarded the recommended beneficiaries to the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT) to ensure the fund is disbursed early enough.
“To avoid what happened in the disbursement of the Ship Acquisition and Ship Building Fund (SASBF), strict guidelines for the disbursement of the CVFF fund were issued in 2007 by the Minister of Transportation and meeting up with these guidelines has not been easy for both operators and banks and NIMASA cannot go against the guidelines.
“We have forwarded the recommended beneficiaries to the FMOT and we are unrelenting in our effort to ensure that the fund is disbursed soon,” he explained.
Peterside thereafter said NIMASA has commenced engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and strategic segment of the National Assembly to change the agency’s term of trade from Free on Board (FOB) to Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF).
“We have commenced engagement with CBN, NNPC and strategic segment of the National Assembly to see how we can change our terms of trade from FOB to CIF and I believe we are making a lot of progress. It is not within our power to just change the terms of trade as we need to engage strategic elements that have a role to play in that process and we are doing that already because we know the multiplier benefits derivable from that change of terms of trade. So I believe everything we should do, we are doing and it is left to Nigerians to assess us,” the DG said.