Group warns against appointment of consultant for N40bn CVFF

To electively administer the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) aimed at building indigenous shipping capacity, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has been urged to resist moves by politicians hiding behind phantom shipping companies to access the fund.

Bolaji Akinola, president, Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), who made the ca in lagos said some politicians and other entrenched interests were attempting to foist an unqualied rm on NIMASA as consultant to the Cabotage Fund.

He said politicians were jostling for a slice of the fund which had accumulated to over $255 million (about N40 billion) in order to satisfy their selsh interest, which would be tantamount to a defeat of the original aim of setting up the fund to build indigenous shipping capacity.

CVFF was established under the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003, and is derived from the 2 percent deduction from all contracts awarded under the Cabotage regime designed to enable indigenous shipping companies acquire adequate tonnage to be able to participate in coastal and inland trade currently dominated by foreigners, who also dominate deep sea shipping.

NIMASA is the statutory secretariat for the fund and is also mandated to disburse it.

“Since four banks have been appointed as Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) for the CVFF and NIMASA has a full department devoted to overseeing the implementation of Cabotage, there is no need for any consultant to the Fund, especially when the potential consultant is being deliberately positioned to do the bidding of politicians and entrenched interests who are not qualied to benet from the Cabotage Fund,” Akinola said.

“An appointment such as consultant to CVFF should have been advertised if it were desirable and organisations with global repute that will not be fronting for anyone and with good track record of performance will be invited to bid.”

He advised NIMASA to scrutinise applications for the CVFF carefully to avoid a recurrence of past experience, especially with regard to the Ships Acquisition and Ship Building Fund (SASBF).

“In the 1980s and 1990s the National Maritime Authority, now known as NIMASA, administered the SASBF through which it gave loans that were intended to encourage ownership of ships by Nigerians. While a few number of genuine Nigerian ship owners benefitted from the SASBF and bought ships, though old and rusty, several politicians, ‘briefcase ship owners’