Shipowners needs four years for vessel acquisition due to fund shortage says NIMASA

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Nigerian shipowners will need an additional N904 billion in addition to the N36 billion accrued in the Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF) to acquire vessels needed for the maritime industry in the next four years, a report has shown.
This is as the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Peterside Dakuku , said the CVFF is not enough to finance the acquisition of maritime assets by indigenous shipowners.
According to Nigeria’s Maritime Industry Forecast 2019-2020, tagged: “Harnessing The Maritime And Shipping Sector For Sustainable Growth” launched  in Lagos by NIMASA recently, Nigeria’s maritime sector has been estimated to spend about N939.5 billion ($2.588 billion) on vessels financing in the next four years. 
Dr. Dakuku who was considering the fact that shipping is capital intensive said since the CVFF is not adequate to address the huge demand for maritime asset, NIMASA is looking at other ship financing models to encourage local operators.
He mentioned that NIMASA was developing a Memorandun of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to develop a specialized fund with single digit interest rate for maritime assets acquisition which should crystalize very soon.
“To enable Nigerians to play a major role in the maritime and shipping sector, two things are critical, the first is asset acquisition and the second is human capacity.
“It’s a known fact that shipping is capital intensive and that the CVFF which there is so much noise about isn’t adequate to address the huge demand for Maritime assets. Because of that NIMASA is working with other stakeholders and we are looking at other ships financing models”, he said.
Dakuku noted that in spite of difficulties in the maritime sector, 125 new vessels were registered in Nigeria marking a 34 per cent increase from vessels registered in 2018. He added that indigenous shipowners would witness more opportunities in the sector as the number of foreign owned vessels in the NIgerian Ship Registry had reduced from 68 in 2018 to 55 presently.

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