Operators Raise Alarm As Foreign Shipping Companies Hijack Barge Operations in Nigeria

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Even with the existence of the Nigerian Local Content Laws, indigenous barge operators have raised an alarm, saying that soms multinational shipping companies have taken over and hijacked the business, thereby perpetrating all kinds of illegalities.

A member of Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN) Mr. Wilson Ugbo who operates Alliance Integrated Services, alleged that there is an influx of multinationals coming to take business that is meant for indigenous companies.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos, he said “We have a lot of illegal operators in this industry, and we are beginning to see the influx of multinationals coming to take business that is meant for indigenous companies”

“If you look at the Acts that set up NPA, NIMASA, NIWA and even the Local Content, these people do not have any right to set up these companies and do barging, especially now that we are having issues of insecurity in this country”

“When the time comes, we are going to start mentioning their names.
The shipping companies pick some Nigerians to set up companies to start doing businesses that the law says it is only Nigerians that should do it , and if we must bring in foreigners, it is when we dont have capacity and competence to do it”

“We as an association have wreckage and response contract for people to come in as divers and support when accidents happen”

“We cannot survive if government do not support us, they need to find out who are these companies setting up businesses, if they remove the veil, they would see that some big companies are beginning to come in, and the people working for them are not members of BOAN”

“With what is happening now, we cannot compel them to be members of BOAN because there is freedom of association, but we are pushing for a situation where we can all be under one body, train everybody and give them measures to build the sector”

“We are going to bring it to the attention of NPA who is regulator of barging businesses in Nigeria”

“We need government and all the regulatory agencies to support BOAN, barging is a business that is thriving all over the world, its enough to drive our GDP”

“These foreigners do not have licenses they did not pass through NPA, they just want to jump into the water and start doing the business, they are destroying the original masterplan for Lagos State” he said