Local Content Board lists top vessels to be in demand from 2019 to 2023
Determined to encourage more Nigerian owned vessels to participate in the nation’s shipping business, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has listed vessels expected to be in demand from 2019 to 2023.
According to recent data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NPIMS), the vessels include tugboats, security patrol vessels, jargon barges, anchor handling truck vessel and crew boats.
Simbi Wabote, executive secretary of NCDMB, who disclosed this in Lagos last week during the annual ship owners workshop, said that purchasing the above listed vessels, could guarantee good shipping business and returns on investments in the next five years.
“These ships account for 66 percent of marine vessel requirements while crew boats, security vessels and guiding support vessels account for 49 percent of vessels that will be in demand within the same period. Accommodation vessels, supply vessels, anchor handling truck vessels, tug boats, and barges will account for 23 percent of the demand in the oil and gas industry.
Wabote said that in the next five years, oil and gas industry’s spend on tugboats and other vessels is estimated at $1.6 billion or 51 percent of total spend, and the annual spend was put at $641 million over 519 marine contracts expected to take place in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023.
Wabote advised that the listed vessels should occupy the focus of Nigerians who aspired to own vessels in the coming years. He further disclosed that the board has in partnership with the Bank of Industry, launched $200 million Maritime Intervention Fund aimed at providing single-digit interest loan to Nigerian oil and gas service providers.
“We recently secured approval to increase the limit of loans to $10 million from the initial $2 million. As at the end of October 2018, $21 million had been given out as loans to beneficiaries, but there is still significant head room for disbursement to interested applicants,” he assured.
He stated that a committee had also been set up between NCDMB and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to harmonise standards for categorisation of marine vessels.
Meanwhile, Dakuku Peterside, director general of NIMASA said that the agency is now poised to redress lingering policy inconsistency that has hindered shipping development in Nigeria.
According to him, lack of supportive institutional frameworks, neglected infrastructure and inadequate financing are the major reasons Nigeria’s shipping potentials have not been fully maximised for the good of the economy.
Delivering a paper titled ‘Effective Policy Implementation: A Panacea for Sustainable Participation and Growth of Nigerian Shipowners in the Maritime Sector,’ Peterside pointed at poor policy implementation, limited stakeholder involvement at the point of formulation, lack of the willingness to enforce the policies coupled with the absence of the needed competence and capacity on the part of implementers as the problem.
Peterside said that there has been collaborative partnership with industry stakeholders as exemplified in the current engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to secure special single digit interest loans for ship owners because shipping has the capacity to engage about 10 million Nigerians.
“NIMASA is also pushing for a special forex window for ship owners to procure vessels of modern specifications in order to compete with their foreign counterparts. The agency is also engaging with the Nigeria Customs Service to create special tariff regime for those brining in ships and spare parts.