AT SEARCHLIGHT EVENT : WIMA Seeks FG Intervention To Float Maritime Bank With CVFF 

By Roland Ekama

 

Apparently worried about delay in disbursement of the controversial funds to operators in furtherance to ship acquisition, Women In Maritime Association (WIMA) Nigeria Branch, has advocated for the federal government to utilise the Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF) for the establishment of a “Maritime Bank.”

 

WIMA reiterated that the establishment of a maritime bank would enable ship owners and other major stakeholders in accessing fund for vessel acquisition following delay by the government in disbursing the pool of fund which has accrued into  billions of naira.

 

President of WIMA, Nigeria, Mrs. Rollens Macfoy who disclosed this on Thursday at the 7th Year Anniversary Lectures and Awards put together by Searchlight Media Concept ; publishers of Searchlight Magazine, lamented that maritime stakeholders in the shipping sub sector , most time experience diffiiculties in an attempted to access soft loans for the acquisition of ships .

 

But , according to her, Government involving in floating a maritime bank would further empower ship owners and investors to buy ships for the optimisation of the industry.

 

While speaking during a paper presentation with the topic, ‘The role of maritime manpower development for Nigeria economic growth,

Macfoy who is also the Managing Director, Oceandeep Nigeria Limited a manning agent outfit, stated that WIMA Nigeria will continue to campaign as agent of change in the nation’s shipping industry adding that the CVFF was long overdue for disbursement to ship owners.

 

She noted that ship acquisition for operators in the industry would further boost capacity and enhance indigenous participation in the shipping industry.

 

Macfoy stressed that  lack of maritime bank has contributed to major set back for ship owners in capacity building and manpower development due to the high lending rates from conventional banks in the country.

 

The President affirmed that the CVFF has what it takes to establish the much talked bank for industry group.

 

Expressing dissatisfaction over the multiple checkpoint at sea, Macfoy clamoured for the  harmonisation of such levies and taxes collected from ships on the nation’s coastal waters for the sector growth, lamenting lack of government concentration and funding has halted the industry development.

 

The WIMA boss further queried delay in the installation of scanners at the nation’s seaports for the ease of cargo clearance ,even as she maintained that political will power from the government can turn around the fortune of the maritime sector.

 

Aside maritime bank establishment  , while harping on the way forward of these quagmire bedeviling the industry, Macfoy clamoured for a technological driven industry powered with adequate equipment and facilities to boost capacity.

 

Earlier Publisher Searchlight Magazine, Comrade Lola Adesokan called on the federal government to expedite actions for the completion of the port  corridors.

 

According to her, the slow pace of the road construction has ripple effect on the shipping sub sector of the nation’s economy.