At Inauguration, NISA Expresses Optimism To Work With President Elect, Bola Tinubu On Cabotage Laws Actualisation

As part of efforts to promote indigenous shipping business, the Nigerian ShipOwners Association (NISA) on Thursday, reiterated commitment to work with the president elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the best way to promote and protect the cabotage laws against foreign dominance.

Speaking at  the NISA inauguration and swearing-in ceremony held in Lagos,  its newly elected executive council led by Otunba Sola Adewumi called on aggrieved members to reunite with the association in engaging the incoming government on maritime business in furtherance to promote indigenous shipping.

Adewumi further disclosed the association readiness  to work with the Federal Government and other relevant government agencies to harness the huge potential of the maritime industry.

Adewumi  who thanked members of the association for the confidence reposed in the executives to pilot the affairs of the association, assured that the interest of members will be protected as far as shipping business is concerned in the nation’s territorial waters.

 

While extending the olive branch to aggrieved members to join hands with him in building a more vibrant association, he said, “During every election, there are bound to be some people that would be aggrieved, I just want to appeal to everyone to come together so that we can form a very strong association for the benefit of all concerned”.

Adewumi also used the occasion of the inauguration to announce the readiness of his newly elected exco to hit the ground running by disclosing that the association will be moving to a new fully furnished secretariat before the end of May 2023.

“I am also confident that we’ll be moving to our new fully furnished secretariat alongside all the members of staff before the end of May 2023”

“We will work with the vision and ideas of the founding fathers of the association, I also have a young vibrant team that can deliver and I believe we can achieve a lot.

“As we all know, shipping is a trillion-naira industry, Maritime itself is an industry and shipping is a big aspect of the Maritime industry, we’ll be liaising with all the relevant agencies like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the rest.

 

“There are so many areas that we can venture into, we are going to tap into all that shipping encompasses. We are going to work with everybody to ensure that we expand the scope.

 

“One of the problems we have was that government didn’t mention shipping as it should, and one of the objectives of this association is to ensure that we draw the government’s attention to the industry to bridge the unemployment gap in the country and I am sure we will achieve that.

 

 

“We’ll liaise with the new government and make recommendations on how to leverage the many advantages of shipping because we have so many countries living solely on shipping

 

Adewumi also disclosed that the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) a brainchild of the association will hold before the end of 2023 or early next year.

 

 

“We wouldn’t want to put up an h

aphazard so if the event does not happen in 2023, it will take place in early 2024. We’ll institute a strong committee that will drive this project. As we all know, this event is fashioned after the OTC, we’ll come together to fashion how best to showcase the Nigerian maritime industry to the world

 

On his part, founding fathers of the association, Chief Isaac Jolapamo disclosed that there is so much work to be done while expressing confidence in the ability of the new executive to hit the ground running now that the baton of leadership has been handed to them.

 

“Let us see some changes, we’ve been in this fight for so long without getting anywhere, your administration will bring about the realization of the reasons why the association was created in the first place, he added.