100% Cabotage Implementation in Nigeria not Practicable—-Eng Alalade

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By DAPO OLAWUNI

Eighteen years after the Cabotage Law was enacted in Nigeria, maritime expert and immediate past President of Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transporters Senior Staff Association, Eng Mathew Alalade has said that the law has not achieved its purpose in Nigeria.

Eng Alalade who is also a ship surveyor told DAILY TREND NEWS in a chat that it is not possible to achieve hundred percent Cabotage compliance in Nigeria because the indigenous shipowners are not given the required backing by the Federal Government.

Eng Alalade said that in order to change the narrative, there must be a partnership between Nigerian shipowners and their foreign counterparts in vessel ownership.

He added that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and other regulatory agencies must make it compulsory that any ship coming to lift Nigerian crude, must have a working partnership with a Nigerian shipowners company.

Speaking, he said “What Nigerian ship owners need to do is public private partnership, with this, they can pick up crude, but I don’t see the Federal Government helping them, without this, Nigerian ship owners cannot manage ships successfully, they should partner with investors from abroad”

“This is what the regulatory agencies like NNPC wanted, they want foreign companies to lift crude because the foreign ships regularly put their ships in class.
But why not Nigerians, why don’t they team up with the foreigners and government should create an enabling environment for Nigerian citizens, they should make it compulsory for the foreign vessels to partner with Nigerian owners” he stated

Continuing, Eng Alalade, a frontline seafarer argued that “There cannot be 100percent Cabotage compliance in Nigeria, remember that Nigerians also have ships trading outside the country, so there cannot be 100 percent Cabotage, it is not practicable”

“Even among the seafarers, we prefer to go outside the shores of this country to work, they count us to be expatriates over there, so our work is international, we cannot always achieve 100 percent Cabotage all the time”

He urged the federal government to make the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) available to assist shipowners.

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