ISAN Carpets FG Over Poor Shipping Sector Dev

The Indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has described the 2012 as a disastrous year for local shipping operators.

Secretary-General of the association, Captain Niyi Labinjo, who disclosed this to pressmen in Lagos, said his members are not expecting anything good to come out of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration this year in terms of developing the shipping sector.

“From this government we expect nothing in 2013. It will be disaster as usual. Our investments continue to diminish, more shipping companies will fold up”, he said.

Labinjo accused the Federal Government of deliberately taking actions that continue to stifle the growth of the maritime, resulting in diminished investments and collapse of over 80 percent of indigenous shipping companies.

“We are yet to see any benefit from the cabotage law in almost ten years, we cannot see anything to show for the shipping aspect of the local content law all due to poor implementation because the wrong people are there. Stakeholders are not happy no civil servant can claim to know better than stakeholders, “Stakeholders are the practitioners. If you now bring political appointees who cannot add value, what do you get? Nothing”, Labinjo lamented.

He said despite the Presidential maritime retreat hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan last year where ISAN led other stakeholders to educate the president on the importance of shipping and on measures to adopt to advance the cause of maritime industry, “the President still condescended to taking regressive actions as can be seen in his appointments into the boards of sensitive agencies like NIMASA and NPA”.

According to him, “we thought with the exposition during the maritime retreat government will be awakened to the reality that we are losing over two trillion naira annually in the maritime sector and that we can create five million jobs in the sector. We thought the government has been sensitized enough and would take positive action.

He also criticized the incumbent Director-General of NIMASA, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, for failing the ship owners.