World Maritime Day: Nigeria’s maritime policy implementation gap

Guardian Nigeria

Is Nigeria truly harnessing its maritime potential? On World Maritime Day, we dive deep into the stark reality: moving beyond policies to crucial implementation.  Despite the Kabotage Act of 2003, designed to boost Nigerian shipping, foreign vessels continue to dominate our waters, costing the nation a staggering 6 trillion Naira annually in lost revenue.  The Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), intended to empower local shipowners with significant capital to purchase vessels, remains an unimplemented promise. This leaves indigenous operators struggling to compete.    Furthermore, the cargo reservation policy, which should guarantee cargo for Nigerian ships, is being undermined, with foreign entities still transporting our vital crude oil.  Nigeria's ambitious 10-year National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy, poised to unlock vast untapped potential, is failing to take root at the state level, leaving immense opportunities on the table.  This World Maritime Day, it's a critical call to action for Nigeria to finally implement these vital policies and unlock the true economic power of its maritime sector.  #MaritimeNigeria #WorldMaritimeDay #BlueEconomy

Transcript

00:00Today is World Maritime Day, with this year's focus on moving beyond policy

00:03formulation to effective implementation. All maritime nations are expected to

00:07implement the international conventions and law by the International Maritime

00:11Organization. One of them is the Kabutage Act 2003, which is expected to promote

00:16indigenous trade participation in Nigeria. However, many foreign vessels

00:20still trade on Nigeria's water, making the country to lose about 6 trillion

00:24nera yearly to threats. To support indigenous operators, the federal

00:28government established the CVFF, which is expected to provide financing for

00:33indigenous ship owner. Now, each indigenous ship owner is expected to get about 25

00:37million dollars to buy a ship and participate in this indigenous trade. Up to

00:41date, there has been no disbursement of this fund to any ship owner or

00:45beneficiaries of this fund. Another is the cargo reservation policy. Under this

00:50policy, the federal government is expected to provide the cargo that these

00:53engineer ship owners would transport. Nigeria has the crude. Unfortunately, it is

00:58foreign operators that are transporting this crude. We also have the national

01:01policy on marine and blue economy. This is a 10-year policy that is expected to

01:05capture the untapped potential of this industry. However, this policy has not

01:10been implemented at the state level, making the country still lose out on the

01:14opportunities presented by this sector. As we commemorate the World Maritime Day

01:18today, this is another opportunity for maritime nations, particularly Nigeria, to go

01:22back to the brewing board and do the needful, ensure that all policies are implemented.

01:28And that's another opportunity, including interact correctly.

01:28So what do we do is stopoting that wherever we are inprofitable and of

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