The Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee, NFIC, on Thursday, turned in its interim report to the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, recommending the need to establish a strong and sustainable national fleet for Nigeria’s maritime industry.
Receiving the report at the Ministry in Abuja, Sambo stated: “Nigeria is a maritime country and if Nigeria gets its acts together, the country will have no business looking for money from the oil sector.”
Speaking on how the project can be immediately realised, he said: “I don’t know whether in the course of the Committee’s consultations with other stakeholders, you were able to have some conversations with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) because, if NNPC, can give 100 % support, this matter can be closed in two months,”
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, and Chairman, Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee (NFIC), Emmanuel Jime, said the Committee was constituted by the immediate past Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, to implement the recommendations in the report by an earlier committee on modalities for the establishment of a Nigerian fleet.
Jime who was represented by the Managing Director, Sea Transport Group, and member, NFIC, Umar Aminu, stated that the initiative was a way of responding to the non participation of Nigerians in the carriage of Nigeria’s international cargo as well as the loss of freight revenue, jobs and other benefits which would otherwise have accrued to the country if it had its own fleet.
