Stakeholders Brainstorm On Cabotage Act Implementation

The Ministerial Committee on Review of the Implementation of Cabotage Act last week in Lagos gathered stakeholders on a roundtable interaction with a revelation by the Chairman of the Senate Ministerial Committee Senator Ugochukwu Uba, that there were repeated agitations for review and amendment of the law from the inception.  
He said that there were divergent views on its implementation and guidelines of which he often counsel his colleagues at the Senate that the law be allowed to operate first in order to have the benefit of hindsight in assessing.
It would be recalled that the Senate approved the guidelines for assessing the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) in 2007 in accordance with Section 44 of the law. The bill was sponsored by Dr.Okey Udeh.    
According to Uba: “After five years of the enactment of the law and over four years of its implementation, Nigerians are asking, how has Cabotage Act fared? The Honourable Minister of State for Water Transportation was therefore in its wisdom commissioned a multi -lateral review into the implementation of the Cabotage law” he said.   
In the committee set up by the Minister of Water Transportation which include Senator Ugochukwu as chairman, others in the committee are Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Finance, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Indigenous Ship Owners Association (ISAN), Labour (Master Mariner Association), Seafarers Associations, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).  
The mandate of the committee is to appraise the implementation of the Cabotage law thus far, with specific tasks relating to grant of waivers, Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), implementation apparatus, and stakeholders perception.   
In his opening remark, the former Honourable Minister of State for Water Transportation , Prince John Okechukwu Emeka, said when the committee was set up on April 2,this year for  the review the implementation of the Cabotage law, it was clear to him that there is the need to assess the achievements and failures in an efforts at implementing the act .  
The former minister said Nigeria’s aspiration to launch herself into lucrative maritime industry and reduce the nation's total dependence on foreign shipping lines anchored on Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003.  
“When the Act was enacted, most Nigerians had sighed with relief that days of exploitation of our economy and our people by foreign operators were over and gone for good. Nigerians had rejoiced that at least another bold step was been taken by government to re-energize our indigenous shipping capability after the painful demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line. However ,five years down than the line, it became necessary to take another look at implementation of the law against our expectations”  
He said when he became minister, he was confronted with numerous complaints on the implementation of the Cabotage Act. “I noted that the entire recommendations waiver appeared unconvincing. I was being asked to grant waiver for foreign vessels crewed with such skilled and cooks, stewards, able seamen, marine engineering assistants, marine engineers, and master mariners on the excuse that such category of seamen were not ready available in Nigeria'
The Director -General of NIMASA, Dr Ade Dosumu said  the last  four years have provided the agency development policy within a context of complex socio-economic setting and sophisticated commercial interest.