Bayo Akomolafe 
The Federal Government has taken steps to ensure that over N225 billion ($500million) spent on ship repairs in foreign shipyards annually is retained in Nigeria.
To this end, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has put in place series of support to encourage vessel maintenance and dry docking in the country.
Presently, New Telegraph gathered that there is no shipyard in the country that can take a 30,000-tonne oil tanker for repairs.
It is estimated that there were over 500 vessels of varying types, specifications and sizes operating in Nigerian waters and 80 per cent of the vessels leave the country to carry out repairs in Malaysia, The Netherlands and Korea.
Although there are small shipyards that can build barges, a former President of Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Engr. Greg Ogbeifun, said that shipyard building and repair was relatively non-existent in the country.
He noted that ship repairs was an expensive operation and that most ship owners prefer to dry dock their vessels within the confines of the routes they operate.
Based on this inadequacy, the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, explained at a Webinar meeting, organized in Lagos by Mike Igbokwe Law firm, that the authority had given a waiver for movement of vessels that were meant for servicing and dry docking in the country.
She said: “This has enabled vessel owners to competitively dry-dock and service their craft in Nigeria. This is very important for us to retain and build that sector.”
Ogbeifun had said at a shipowners forum that the shipyards ought to be making a substantial contribution to the country’s income, noting that the loss to the sector was estimated to be about $500 million per annum.
He stressed that lack of adequate infrastructure such as power, roads and a viable steel production industry were some of the other factors militating against the development of the shipping building and repairs in the country.
It would be recalled that in 2017, SOAN complained that the cost of securing forex to take their ships out of the country for repairs was very high.
Also in June, 2018, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) took delivery of a floating dock, which was acquired for N50 billion.
The President of Nigerian Association of Master Mariners, Capt Tajudeen Alao, had said in Lagos that the intention of NIMASA was to deploy the floating dock to Okerenkoko, the permanent site of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko in Delta State, with the intention to train Nigerians on ship repairs, while at the same time generating revenue.
However, Alao alleged that the floating dock facility was still lying idle at the Naval Dockyard in Lagos, saying that NIMASA was confused on what to do with it.
