Indigenous ship owners and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) are set to explore a pooling funding model to spread the financial burden of acquiring ships.
The special arrangement is to be spearheaded by NNPCL.
This was agreed on at a meeting between officials of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS) and the Managing Director of NNPCL Shipping, Panos Gliatis.
Gliatis suggested a pooling system is a viable approach for Nigerian shipowners to surmount the funding challenges of vessel acquisition.
He said the non-availability of contracts for ship-owners has been a recurring challenge that needs to be addressed.
Gliatis said the system would ensure the availability of Nigerian vessels in the next few years as it guarantees impartiality, transparency and equal sharing of earnings.
He hoped both parties could build on the collaboration to find solutions to the funding challenge.
The NNPC boss stressed the need for the country to develop human capital in shipping, saying with over 230 million people and 65 per cent being youth, the country should prioritise seafarer development.
The President of NCS, Aminu Umar, said the meeting was an opportunity to build collaborations and networks instead of the non-productive approach of confrontation.
“If we can engage and we bring all our strengths together, there is a high possibility that we will change the way the industry stands today,” the NCS President said.
On his part, the President of the Nigeria Shipowners Association (NISA), Sola Adewunmi, lamented that Nigerian shipowners have been unable to attract investors on account of the unavailability of jobs in the sector.
He equally lamented that no Nigerian shipowner has participated in the supply of crude oil to Dangote Petroleum Refinery, stressing that indigenous operators are losing out and the government also loses potential earnings via taxes.
“How do you borrow money from the bank when you are not securing a job that can pay for that loan? We have looked at it. One of the ways we can improve shipping is for NNPC to give us the platform to collaborate with international partners.
“If indigenous shipowners do not have the capacity right away, there should be an opportunity for us to collaborate with foreign ship owners to bring this in the process. This is the type of collaboration we want from NNPCL Shipping,” Adewunmi said.
Meanwhile, a former governing board member of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mina Oforiokuma, observed that there is a clause in the Nigerian Content Policy yet to be explored in shipping for Nigerian labour and shipping services in the affreightment of the nation’s petroleum carbon.
He said the NCDMB did a lot of work and was finally able to get, not just NNPC, but the Nigerian Content Board to insert the clause into the Nigerian Content Act as it had to do with the Direct Sale of crude oil and Direct Purchase of petroleum product (DSDP) contracts.
Others, he listed, include, direct import of petroleum products and crude oil affreightment and refined products to the extent that Nigerian shipping services and labour should be considered in a marine vessel.
Oforiokuma told the NNPCL boss to apply this to the plans and strategy in the future.
He said by tonnage, Greece today is the largest ship owning country, adding that the country got to that position by buying ships and operating marine assets.
