*Shippers’ Council Working Out Modalities

“The Nigerian Shippers’ Council is chairing the committee working in collaboration with other federal government agencies such as the NNPC, NPA, NIMASA, NEXIM Bank, Ship owners and others. It must be made clear that buying ships is not like buying akara in the market, it’s not like that.

“A lot of factors must be taken into consideration-such as Insurance, Ship building/Repair yards, quality crew made up of competent seafarers, a revolutionized flag administration so that the ships can fly the Nigerian flag, you need the involvement of Nigerian banks, you need the insurance firms…if this happens, the economy of Nigeria is changed forever for good because earnings from freight alone will have significant impact”.

“We are going about it methodically; as a private sector driven initiative, we discovered that the Nigerian environment seems not very receptive or ready for foreign investors. They see so many disincentives and uncertainties surrounding/affecting their investments”

“So we are trying to put the incentives in place, the legal framework must be there, the institutional framework must be there and investment incentives that should guarantee and reassure investors returns on their investments…”

Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Hassan Bello, ES/CEO Nigerian Shippers’ Council. Watch out for more in our hard copy, Maritime Insider.