Seafarer Gives Recipe For Nigeria’s Shipping Dev

The need for Nigeria’s shipping industry to improve on its operational capacity by having more ships in its registry in order to measure up to international standards and remain competitive, has been stressed.

The remark was made by the Chief Engineer on board M/V Costellio, Engr. Tombra Ebikabowei during an interview with The Tide at the Port Harcourt Wharf, Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

He said, the strategic importance of the shipping industry to the Nigerian economy could not be underestimated owing to the fact that it serves as the gateway to the importation and exportation of goods to and from the country.

According to him, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), under the former Director-General, had 1,318 vessels in its ship registry, but sources said that 2,165 vessels were operating in the nations waters. The United Nations Conference on Trade Development in its Review of Maritime Transport 2010, said as at January last year, the 35 world largest flags of registration accounted for 93.23 percent of the world fleet, a further increase from the 92.9 percent share a year earlier, he added.

Engr Ebikabowei who is a Marine Engineer noted that the largest flag of registration continues to be Panama, with 289 million Dead weight Tonne (which measures the carrying capacity of vessels) or 22.6 per cent of the world fleet, followed by Liberia (142 million DWT or 11 percent), the Marshall Islands (6.1 percent) Hong Kong (5.8 percent) China (5.8 percent), Greece (5.3 percent) and Bahamas (5.02 percent).

Together, those top five registries accounted for 51 percent of the world’s deadweight tonnage and the top 10 registries accounted for 71.3 per cent of the world’s deadweight tonnage, with both figures showing increases over the previous years.