By Steve Agbota
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has given indigenous shipowners three conditions to disburse the $350 million and N16 billion Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
Giving a feedback report on Thursday during a meeting of the Nigerian Shipowners’ Association (NISA), Chairman of the CVFF Committee of NISA, Dr Edward Sowho said that during a meeting between his committee and NIMASA, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh asked that NISA and Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) must unite and collapse into one indigenous shipowners association before the CVFF can be disbursed.
“The NIMASA DG asked that before the CVFF will be disbursed, the division among indigenous shipowners must end. That NISA and SOAN must collapse into one body of indigenous shipowners group.
“Secondly, the NIMASA DG asked that NISA must change the name of its CVFF Committee because the Federal Ministry of Transportation is about to set-up a committee with that name. The NIMASA DG told us that the Federal Ministry of Transportation cannot have a Committee named CVFF Committee while NISA also has a committee named CVFF Committee.
“Thirdly, the NIMASA DG asked us to accept the disbursement of the amount in the CVFF. The NIMASA DG said that NISA cannot fault the amount in the CVFF and expect it to be disbursed.”
Also, during the meeting, the indigenous shipowners deliberated on whether it is time to have elections into national executives of the group.
While a founder father of NISA who also doubles as the Chairman of BOT, Chief Isaac Jolapamo advocated elections into national offices of the group in two weeks, other members of the group like Captain Taiwo Akinpelumi, Mr. Emmanuel Ilori and some other members of the group called for restrain, stating that it is too early to call for elections into national offices of NISA.
The meeting selected Captain Adewale Ishola, Captain Solomon Aluko, Mr Gbolahan Adu and Mr Bob Manuel as members of the Electoral Committee, and mandated the committee to come up with a timeline and date for elections into national offices of NISA.