Nigeria’s indigenous shipping line underway, says Amaechi

• Tasks NIMASA On Full Implementation Of Cabotage Law

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said that a new national shipping line is to be floated soon to cushion the challenges of foreign exchange and other difficulties faced by Nigerian investors when they patronize foreign vessels.

The minister remarked that so far, a lot of work has gone into setting up a major National Shipping line that will give opportunity to Nigerian investors to buy into the shipping business, thereby creating jobs and increasing revenue drive. When functional, he said the law would help reposition the economy, especially in the light of current economic challenges.

Making the pronouncement in Abuja during the swearing-in of the governing boards of NIMASA and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Amaechi stated that the nation’s cabotage law specifically made provision for the establishment of indigenous ownership of vessels as a means of protecting citizens and the economy from undue incursion by foreign players.

Consequently, he directed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to commence full implementation of Nigeria cabotage law, which he said is part of their core mandate. The Coastal and inland shipping ACT otherwise known as the Cabotage ACT was enacted in 2003 in order to restrict the use of foreign vessels in domestic coastal trade to promote the development of indigenous tonnage and to establish a cabotage vessel-financing fund and for related matters.