The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, at the weekend disclosed that Nigeria lost about $25 billion as opportunity loss to foreign ship owners between 2015 and 2017 due to absence of a national fleet.
Bello, who made the disclosure when the Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Budget and Planning, Sen. Udoma Udoma, in Abuja specifically disclosed that over $9.08 billion was paid as freight for dry and wet cargos to foreign ship owners in 2015 alone due to the absence of Nigerian fleet plying international routes.
Making further clarification on the yearly huge losses the country continues to suffer as a result of lack of national vessels on international routes, the NSC boss hinted that in 2016, over $7.55 billion was estimated as opportunity loss compared to the $8.60 billion freight opportunity loss from import and export of dry and wet cargos in 2017.
Bello explained that it was in government’s efforts to reverse the ugly trend that the Federal Ministry of Transportation set up a committee for the Nigerian fleet implementation.
According to him, the committee is mandated to examine the possibility of using existing shipping companies to run a Nigerian fleet and provide guidelines on procedures of establishing a shipping company.
Bello said that for the objectives of setting up the committee to be realised, there was the need for government to create enabling environment backed by strong political will with incentives for shipping companies in the country.
In his remarks, Udoma expressed the readiness of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to work with relevant agencies to address the challenges facing indigenous ship owners and support the committee fully.
He assured: “We will work with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Trade as well as the Ministry of Finance to try and ensure that we address those issues; it is important that your work succeed.
“It is very important because firstly there is need for this country to generate more revenue; there is the need to see if we can expand the Nigeria fleet, the work and the cargoes that they carry.
“We will be saving ourselves foreign exchange and we would be able to generate funds in foreign exchange as well. So it is very important to create an expansion for Nigerian fleet”, the minister added
