Business
Biu Blames NNSL Over Missing Ships
Capt. Adamu Biu, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council, has blamed the loss of 27 ships in the fleet of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) in the 1970s to mismanagement.
Answering questions recently in Abuja, Biu said that mismanagement and inexperience led to the closure of the NNSL.
He noted that Nigeria now depended solely on foreign-owned vessels for its import and export trade, a situation which he described as unfortunate.
“Unfortunately, due to some mismanagement and inexperience, we lost all the ships in the sense that the company was closed down.
“Today, we are in shipping without owning vessels. So we rely solely on foreign vessels to support our foreign trade and even domestic trade; both import and export are now carried in foreign vessels,’’ Biu said.
The executive secretary added: “So, there is need for us to start afresh. May be by God’s grace in the next few years, we will begin to own vessels again.”
According to him, it is imperative for Nigeria to start afresh because about 75 per cent of its trade is import-oriented, coupled with the fact that it has about 800 kms of coast line.
“We have vibrant ports and we are the largest economy in West and Central Africa as we have trained adequate manpower to man the shipping industry and the trade.
“We cannot have a country like ours without owning vessels. Definitely, we have to work and own more vessels than we have before,” he added.
The executive secretary said the nation’s economy currently needed, on a conservative estimate, 50 or 60 dry cargo merchant vessels, apart from the trade in oil.
Biu urged the government to evolve a deliberate policy and create an enabling environment to encourage individuals to own vessels in order to revamp the shipping industry.
He said there was the need to ensure that Nigerian-bound cargo was carried by Nigerian-registered vessels as it was the only way it could regain its position in shipping.
“We have to encourage individuals to own vessels. We can create the enabling environment; create loan facilities and ensure that cargo bound for Nigeria is basically carried by Nigerian registered vessels,” Biu said.
The executive secretary said the era when government acquired vessels and gave them to people to run had gone, saying: “Government has no business in business.”
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