Shipping Position Daily

For allegedly‘insulting them’ and for allegedmisrepresentation of facts about the CabotageVessel Finance Fund (CVFF), some shipowners are currently up in arms against the Minister of Transportation; MrRotimi Amaechi.

Our reportergathered that the cold war is mainly as a result of last week stakeholdersmeeting the Minister had with ship owners on modalities for the disbursement ofthe CVFF.

Eventhough the media was shut out of the meeting, our reporter observed that aformer Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and SafetyAgency (NIMASA) stormed out of the meeting while lamenting that he came downfrom Abuja just to waste his time.

He washeard saying, “I will come back next week to drop my resignation letter, beforebeing pacified by one of the staff of the agency to return to the meeting.

Shortlyafter the stakeholders’ meeting, the president of one of the ship owners’associations who declined to speak to the press confided in our reporter thatthe Minister of Transportation actually insulted him and as such he was not in a good mood to talk tothe press.

Obviouslyvery angry, he also said: “How can theMinister insult me, he insulted my personality, I am not his mate, imagine himpointing fingers and asking each one of us to mention the number of ship wehave, that’s an insult, but I won’t speak until I have had a one- on -oneconversation with him” he said.

Oneissue that the ship owners are also not comfortable with is the exactproceeds from the CVFF.

Also, aprominent ship owner discredited the US$200 million dollars (or about N72billion) that the Minister said hasaccrued in the CVFF.

Hesaid, “well that is what the minister said, but for me, it is above that, farfar above that”

Whenasked if he is optimistic that the fund will be disbursed to ship owners, hesimply replied “let’s wait and see”.

He alsofaulted the authenticity of the claimthat $200Million had accrued, according to him, “the figure cannot be correct,we need to see the books”.

Recallthat, speaking shortly with the press after the stakeholders meeting, theMinister informed that a committee will be set up to be headed by the DirectorGeneral of NIMASA, he said the committeewill come forward with the proposed guideline which will be presented to theNational Assembly.

Addingthat it is the committee that will determine if it will be a single digits ornot,'' he said

Amaechifurther stated that as part of efforts to mitigate the risk involved in thedisbursement, financial institutions would be involved and the fiscal riskwould be borne by the banks involved.

"Thebanks will be involved in developing the criteria for the disbursement of thefund, so the risk will be borne by the lending institutions", the Ministersaid.

Theminister also noted that the committee would determine the percentage interestto be inserted in the procurement of CVFF.