Steve Agbota, [email protected] 08033302331

 

As stakeholders are clamouring for national shipping line, an expert, Prince Adeyinka Bakare, the Managing Director of De Potter Nigeria Limited and the President of the National Association of Freight Forwarders and Air Consolidators (NAFFAC), says the country requires a sustainable government policy to run a successful a national fleet. 

According to him, before running a national carrier, a lot of things have to be put in place as the nation doesn’t have a line whether as shipping or container line, adding that there is need to ask how many trade does Nigeria have with Dwallah, Ghana, China and the rest before floating a national carrier.

He cited examples of some developed countries, like Germany, that was previously handling national lines, and  a lot of them have to sell them because they could not maintain it.

Considering the fact that Nigeria is currently spending about $10 billion on freight annually, he said there is need to look at what it would cost to have a vessel that is going to take 3000 to 5000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs)and trade on Nigerian waters.

He added: “How many countries have national carriers? One of the most expensive businesses anyone can do is maritime business. There is no single business that covers maritime sector. As big as Mearsk Line is, some of their businesses are still franchised out. A lot of developed countries have fizzled out of shipping lines even South Africa have to sell its shipping line. Floating a national carrier involves a lot of funds and goes beyond mere talks.

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“Shipping line is a big business. I am not saying Nigeria should not have interest or trade on Nigerian waters. But it is not compulsory that it must be a national line. Nigerians should be encouraged, I think that is why we are having Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) that is coming in for Nigerians to participate in other business and all those stuff.”

According to him, there is a need for government to replicate what other countries are doing by designing a robust policy on freight so as to bring down the cost.

He stated: “It now becomes a government policy when you look at freight issues in Nigeria. For instance, a country like India, you don’t pay with any other currencies in India, aside Indian Rubies, when it comes to maritime business. You can give the invoice in dollars or any currency you like. But as long as you are trading in India, you have to pay in Indian Rubies. What it means is that as a citizen that pays freight in India, I don’t need to look for dollars because I pay in Indian rubies.

“But here in Nigeria, it is quite different. If I want to pay for freight here, automatically I have to look for dollars. So it puts pressure on dollars and demand for dollars will be on the rise as well. This is a policy as a country could look into but it is not compulsory it has to be because Nigeria does not have a national line. As a matter of fact, I don’t think we can maintain a national line.”

Besides, he urged the Federal Government to encourage Nigerians in the area of export, saying if a vessel is coming from China with 1000 containers and charging $2000 to bring each container and when the vessel is leaving, it goes with 300 out of 1000 containers that is failure of export.

He noted: “We need to encourage people so that they can come into the export trade. Practically, the freight has to come down. If out of 1000 containers coming into Nigeria only 300 are being used for export, what happened to the remaining 700 containers? If you now put a Nigerian vessel, we also face the same thing because a Chinese man will not leave a Chinese Line coming into the country and load the Nigeria vessel. We still have a lot to do in this aspect.”