Reps considering establishment of maritime bank to curb capital flight

The Chairman of the House Committee on Shipping Services, Abdussamad Dasuki, on Thursday, revealed that lawmakers are considering creating a maritime bank to address the challenge of capital flight in the country’s maritime industry.

Dasuki disclosed this when he led members of the committee on an oversight visit to the headquarters of the Nigerian Shippers Council in Apapa, Lagos.

The lawmaker expressed confidence that the committee would not only have the support of the House of Representatives but the support of the entire National Assembly in establishing the maritime bank.

“Also as I highlighted in my discussions, the committee is going to look into the possibilities of championing the maritime bank so that the maritime sector, the key players and the shipowners would have their own bank. The whole idea is to stop the capital flight we currently have in the maritime sector.

“We are going to have the support of not only the House of Representatives, but the whole National Assembly to ensure that this comes to reality,” Dasuki said.

According to Dasuki, the committee would be meeting with shipowners and other relevant stakeholders in the industry to brainstorm on how to improve the sector.

“We are also going to meet with shipowners together with your team to see how we are going to improve the services of the shipowners in Nigeria and the meeting will happen as soon as possible. 

“I would like to encourage you to do more. Let’s put our words into action so that by the time we are here for another oversight visit, we should have good figures based on some of the observations we have seen here,” Dasuki added.

He said that the NSC as an economic regulator was operating under some challenges even as he assured them that the “bill to make this agency a true regulator with all the relevant laws has passed the second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives and by God’s grace any moment from now we would be calling for public hearing”.

“We believe it would be the catalyst for changing the economy, the challenges have been highlighted. We believe that this agency and other maritime-related agencies can do better when that law is passed by the National Assembly,” he maintained.

He, however, urged the executive secretary of the NSC to give more clarifications on the one per cent freight stabilisation fund next week.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the NSC, Pius Akutah, sought approval from the House of Representatives to commence the collection of a one per cent freight fee.

Akutah said: “You know the Federal Government is planning to implement Orasanye’s report. And as it concerns the NSC, the report says we should be self-funding.

“And, therefore, there is a need for us to actually implement the statutory position, which is the one per cent freight fee. I think this is important as this bill is about to be implemented because once it is implemented, the 2.7 per cent port development levy may not be available to the NSC,” he said.