
The House Committee on Marine Education and Administration, has queried the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), over the issuance of cabotage waivers, challenging them to make available the number of waivers so far approved.
During a stakeholders’ meeting, in Warri, Delta State, the Committee Chairman, Mohammed Bago, said that the process of granting waivers, under cabotage, had been shrouded in secrecy.
Bago said the law establishing the cabotage provided that waivers should be granted through a process, adding that that process must be adhered to.
He said: “NIMASA and the Ministry of Transportation said that they had not granted waivers to foreign operators in the last six years or more. If they haven’t, how are these foreign operators operating in Nigeria, to the detriment of our indigenous operators?
“My message, therefore, is that if NIMASA and the Federal Ministry of Transportation, in treating application for waivers, under cabotage, as provided for in Section 9 to 14 of the Cabotage law, follow the requirement of Articles 3-8 of the Executive Order, then the indigenous operators will be better for it.
“There will no more be foreign ships scattered on our waterways operating without waivers.
