Lawmakers Summon Transport Minister, Others Over $700m Cabotage Vessel

The House of Representatives has directed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to immediately stop the planned disbursement of $700 million to Nigerian citizens and companies and to lay before it an audited statement of account showing all monies that have accrued to the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund within the next 7 days.

The House invited the Minister of for Transportation and the Director
General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to report to the House Committee on local content on the state of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund and how the funds have been applied over the past 20 years.

The House also directed the House Committee on Local Content to immediately commence
investigations into the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund to determine all monies
that have accrued to the Fund since its establishment in the year 2003, and
report to the House within 14 days.

The House resolution followed a motion of urgent importance on the “Urgent need to stop the planned disbursement of $700m Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund and investigate the total accrual of the fund” Sponsored by Henry Nwawuba.

Presenting the motion, he said
“the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund was established by the Coastal and
Inland Shipping (Cabotage)Act, 2003 to promote the development of indigenous
ship acquisition capacity by providing financial assistance to Nigerian operators in domestic coastal shipping;

“Aware that in addition to monies allocated to the fund by an Act of the National Assembly, the fund draws from two per cent (2%) of all contract sum performed by any vessel engaged in the coastal trade, and all monies generated under the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage)Act, 2003;

“Concerned that since the establishment of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund, there have been no reliable data as to the total amount that has so far accrued to the Fund and thus, there is no certainty as to the actual worth of the fund at the moment.”

“Also concerned that since the establishment of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund in the year 2003, there is no record of any Nigerian citizen or company who have officially benefited from the fund as stated in the Act;
recalls that in 2018, the then Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Dr Dakuku Peterside said the agency had concluded the necessary documentation needed for the disbursement of the CVFF. He gave the accruals from the fund at that time to be more than US$100 million however, there are no records of such disbursement;

“Also recalls that Mr Rotimi Amaechi (the then Minister of Transportation) said in
December 2019 that Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund disbursement would commence in January 2020; however, the funds were not disbursed as promised;

“Further recalls that Dr Bashir Jamoh, Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, on April 4, 2023, during the Institute of Maritime Studies’ first annual lecture at the University of Lagos in Akoka, said that the government will disburse the sum of $700m to ship owners before the end of the current administration.

“Worried that the matrix, procedure and condition of the disbursement of the
Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund is obscure and not transparent and not wholly the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage)Act, 2003,” Nwawuba said.

“Also worried that more than 20 years after the enactment of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003, the Ministry of Transportation in collaboration with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has misappropriated the funds designated to promote the development of indigenous ship acquisition capacity and that the Act has not achieved its objectives.

“Further worried that if this House does not leave up to its oversight responsibility, there will be a continues violation of the provision of the Coastal and Inland Shipping(Cabotage) Act, 2023 relating to the purpose of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund,” Nwawuba added.

The House, however, directed its committee on Local Content to engage an external auditor to audit all contracts that have been entered in the cabotage regime and report to the house within 14 days.

Mercy Chukwudiebere