03 Cabotage Act: 10 years after

NOVEMBER 3, 2013 BY OUR READERLeave a CommentThe Nigerian maritime Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003 has been regarded as one of the best governmental policies ever adopted by the Nigerian maritime industry. It was argued that, the Act was coined out of the US Jones Act of 1920. The popular US maritime Jones Act was put in place to improve and protect the standard of the US maritime industry. The Act gave a redefinition to the US maritime industry, for both the locals and foreigners coming into the business. Jones Act has always being a strong advocate for protectionism which helps to encourage local participation within the maritime business. The Act also gave a vast understanding on how capital intensive the maritime industry can be, whereby, without the efficient governmental will power, the effective contribution and involvement of the banks and investment houses within the maritime industry is as good as being dead. The Jones Act has been amended more than once since its existence and it has also encouraged and increased the level playing field for any local maritime companies or persons coming into the industry within the US territorial waters.On the contrary, the Nigerian Cabotage Act has been said to be a replica of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 also known as Jones Act of 1920. According to some Nigerian maritime practitioners, it will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. The Nigerian Cabotage Act has one of the best maritime initiative(s), which happens to be an economic growth driven and effective maritime development governmental policy if well implemented. The Act has infused all necessary provisions in bringing in more indigenous hands into the Nigerian maritime industry. But the billion dollar question we need to ask ourselves is that, has any of these great initiatives seen the light of the day? Nigerian has the largest and the best maritime technical know-how within the West African region, if not in Africa. People will say the concession activities within our ports are can also be seen as a plus to show that the Cabotage Act has moved from just being on the paper to the level of implementation. The strategic implementation stage of the Cabotage Act is still far behind from what and where the industry is meant to be. Port concession should be classified as a public-private partnership or corporate social responsibility (ies) within the industry.After a decade of the Nigerian Cabotage Act, the role of legislations and regulations in promoting and overseeing the implementation of maritime programmes and policies cannot be overemphasised.  In other words, the adoption of supportive legislation could play a catalytic role in Nigeria’s maritime transformation agenda in general and accelerating the implementation of the Cabotage Act at all levels. As such, since 2003, increasing number of stakeholders, private sector operators, civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations have continuously adopted the new maritime laws, policies and institutional arrangements for the transformation of the sector, as well as the transformational agenda of the Federal Government. But in the last couple of years, this happens to be on the contrary on the side of the government and its regulatory bodies within the Ministry of Transport (NIMASA) and the maritime sector.Due to the increasing level of globalisation and the unpredictable world business environment, there is no way for any reasonable government to totally restrict the involvement of foreign maritime participation in doing business within the Nigerian business environment. But one strategic step the government needs to understand is that, “there are rules to every game.” The Nigerian government should be able to put her cards on the table so that anybody coming into the industry should be able to play by the rules. The government should also look at the effective accessibility of funds for any indigenous company or person going into industry. The government must put in place an efficient and quality background check on any indigenous person or organisation that intends to benefit from these Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund initiatives. The person or organisation must have been tested and trusted.History must not be encouraged and allowed to repeat itself by giving financial assistance to people that knows nothing about the maritime business. The CVFF must be allowed to take its normal justification in contributing to the economic growth of the Nigerian maritime industry. More importantly, informed by its historic past decade, it must be able to take advantage of the lessons it has learned in implementing its mandate over the decade and position itself to achieve more outcomes over the next decade. In other words, assessment of these issues are crucial in charting the way forward for the Nigeria as it religiously implements its Cabotage Act.In conclusion, the governmental initiative of a maritime bank should be well considered by the Nigerian government. We do not need to wait for other West African nations before putting our maritime industry into a world class state. Nigeria should be a leading example to other African nations and not the other way round. This will really increase and develop local participation of indigenous maritime companies in acquiring world class vessel and other maritime machineries.Akinseye Aluko, Teesside University Business SchoolTeesside University, Tees Valley, United Kingdom.A.aluko@tees.ac.uk