A former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello, has urged the federal government to design a system that would enable Nigerians own ships and earn freight.
Bello who made this plea in his remarks at the 10th anniversary, lecture and awards put together by Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently, observed that the consequences of ownership of vessels by Nigerians on the economy would be so much that it would shock Nigerians.
He identified inability of Nigerians to own ships as the bane of the blue economy in Nigeria even as he wondered how Nigeria could be called a maritime nation without a ship.
“There is not a single person who owns a ship that trades internationally and we used to have ships trading as far as Alaska, Germany, China and everywhere but not one now and that means we are not for all intent and purposes, a maritime nation.
“We spend billions of dollars giving foreigners freight, we spend billions of dollars, as a matter of fact, the carriage of our crude oil is on FOB basis – Free On Board, which means the buyer will come, bring a ship and take. Nobody, not a single country in OPEC does that and sometimes they ask us, why is it that you people are still on FOB?
“We should have CIF carriage so that we will evolve the economy. If we have CIF carriage, that means, we have ships that carry our products overseas. It will have profound impacts on our economy.
“We have had this talk with NNPC for a very long time and they are talking about risks. This oil is going to finish anyway, even if it doesn’t finish, how many years would you have oil? Maybe a hundred years. So, why don’t you take the risks for the rest of the life of the crude or whatever it is called and involve Nigerians,” he queried.
Bello who double as the Chairman of the event disagreed with those who believed that Nigerians were not experts even as he maintained that Nigerians did not lack capacity but opportunity.
“When you say you are going to bring in a tanker or something, there are many ways to operate but you involve our insurance companies, you involve our financial institutions and then, we have the benefits of that. That will bring so much money to Nigeria such that we will not have the problem of foreign exchange anymore and that’s what we are talking about diversification through export.
“My former boss, Chief Sarumi, said Nigeria will either export or perish because we are receiving goods any time and we are creating jobs for others. Why can’t the blue economy also center on export? Export is the way to earn.
“I have seen a ship coming to Lekki port, they said about seventy thousand containers, one came to Grimaldi but what are they taking back? They sail empty. How can a country have that when we have a country? It looks like the country is angry with exporters. They have done everything to make sure that they export but at every turn, the government put impediment to export.
“Now one terminal is even slamming charges on export. How can you do that in the country that is promoting export? Our Ports are not actually constructed for export, they are constructed just for import, receiving import until we die. How can a country do that?
“So, it’s important we have the blue economy, we design a system that will enable Nigerians own ships and earn freight and the consequences of the economy will be so much that we will be shocked. Let our contract of affreightment of our oil be by us, that should also be the center of our blue economy,” he said.
