Indigenous Firms and Age Limit on Cabotage Vessels
By Francis Ugwoke
For indigenous shipping firms, it is not yet jubiliation for the introduction of cabotage shipping regime which took effect recently. Government had in June this year flagged off cabotage shipping policy with the introduction of guidelines for its operation.
Under the cabotge law, indigenous firms have exclusive rights to be engaged in coastal shipping except in cases where they fall short of capacity. When this happens, a foreign firm that may be engaged to fill such gap will be required to get a waiver from the Ministry of Transport..
Passed in April 30, last year, the Cabotage law took effect in May 1, this year. The Act was part of the policy of government to create opportunities for increased Nigerian participation in all sectors of the economy.
But since then, the indigenous operators have been complaining of one problem after another. The operators claim that many of the foreign firms have been granted waivers to operate even in areas where they have capacity. Although, sources close to the National Maritime Authority (NMA) said no application for waiver has been approved for any foriegn firm. Yet, what baffles indigneous operators is the continued presence of many foreign ships in the nation's territorial waters which Nigerian Shipping Companies Association (NSCA) and Indigneous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) claimed were operating illegally. The ships are said to be engaged in transporting imported petroleum products for marketers. NMA sources had in defence of the recent substitution of three Nigerian vessels for a foreign vessel explained that this was because the vessles in question were not in good state of health.
Yet, beyond this, is the provision in the guidelines that "all vessels registered in the Special Register for Vessels and Ship Owning Companies engaged in Cabotage that are above 15 years old shall continue to be eligible for participation in the Cabotage trade for a period of five years provided they possess Certificate of Ship Registry, Certificate of seaworthiness from a recognised classification society...".
The above condition shows that any vessels which is above 15 years will meet the above conditions before she will be allowed to participate in cabotage trade. This can hardly be faulted, as it is mainly to ensure safety at sea. But this also means that after five years, such vessels even if they are seaworthy will no longer be allowed to operate. This indeed is not the best since expert view is that there is no international convention forbidding a ship of any age from participating in shipping services. It is not known if ships below 15 years are required to provide certificate of seaworthiness. If this is not so, then there may be a wrong assumption that because a ship is less than 10 years, it is seaworthy. It depends on maintenance.
In the view of indigenous operators, the age limit policy is bad news that will impact negatively on the nation's shipping industry. Secretary-General, Nigerian Shipping Companies Association (NSCA), Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, argues that such provision will limit the ability of indigenous firms in the trade and also the availability of more vessels for the cabotage trade. He argues that nothing like such provision can be found anywhere in the world. According to him, what shipowners do is to carry out periodic inspection, dry docking, surveys, necessary to validate the certificate of ships. The implication of such law is that while Nigerian owned vessels above 15 years can trade in other international waters, it cannot trade in its own country, he said.
Similarly, a shipping operator and Director of Joe Eboje International Agencies Limited, Dr. Joe Ehimuan who described such policy as unfair to Nigerian firms said government did not take into consideration what happens in other maritime nations.
"Eeven if a ship is 20 -30 years, owners can always work on them to conform to class. It is like an aircraft - you can fly it for 35 years and at a certain time you take it for checks", he said.
Ehimuan was of the view that what government can do is to ensure that ships regularly conform to standard.
"Once ship owners take their vessels to regular maintenance, such as dry dock with classification societies certifying to the seaworthiness of such vessels, government should allow them to continue to operate. This is what happens in other countries and Nigeria should not be an exception", he said.
In a new martime safety guideline released this week by the NMA, Nigerian shipowners were asked to dry dock their their vessels at least two times in any period of five years, while the intervals between any two dry docks shall not be more than three years. Under the new guidelines,the Authority also directed ship owners to invite a surveyor of the administration for survey of the vessel to be dry docked as a matter of procedure, and added that such vessels must obtain a Dry Dock Certificate to prove sea worthiness to avoid embarrassment of intangible dry docking evidences.
The guideline stated that all ships shall henceforth carry a Safety Management Certificate (SMC) issued by the administration after due documentation carried out by a recognised organisation.
The ship shall also be operated by a company holding a Document of Compliance duly issued by the administation, a copy of which shall be permanently placed on board.
NMA further explained that this requirement was in accordance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code required for the issuance and renewal of vessels satutory certificates.
For industry watchers, with such guidelines, it does not appear to make any sense to still stop any ship above 15 or 20 years to operate under the cabotage law provided that she meets the safety standard required. This is one area that the government should look into to remove the impression that the age limit policy on vessels as provided in the cabotage guidelines was influenced by foreign shipping firms.
|
