The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, has said Nigeria is long overdue for an active national fleet.
Dakuku said this in Lagos when he played host to members of the National Fleet Implementation Committee (NFIC) at the headquarters of the agency.
He pointed out that national fleet will energize the maritime sector, retain huge spending on freight in-country and create job opportunities to grow the economy.
He declared the agency’s readiness to support the committee.
He said, “The national fleet implementation is long overdue and so NIMASA will work assiduously with the committee to ensure that the national fleet is restored to its past glory so that our nation can be reckoned with in the comity of maritime nations.”
He said NIMASA had taken steps towards developing the maritime sector and increasing indigenous participation.
He detailed the measures to include repositioning of the Nigerian ship registry; securing a special tax regime, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigeria Navy.
Customs Service; and changing of trade terms from Free on Board (FOB) to Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF).
The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council and Chairman of the national fleet committee, Hassan Bello, enumerated the work done so far by the committee and solicited NIMASA’s support.
