Chief Adegboyega Oyetola, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Chief Adegboyega Oyetola, and his lieutenants in the ministry have been advised to develop sacrosanct conditionalities to guide the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, in determining companies that qualify to benefit from the much-touted Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF.
Leadership of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, APFFLON, offered the patriotic advice with the view to preventing the abysmal failure experienced during the previous disbursement of similar funds to financially buoy the shipping companies for better performance, but failed to achieve the set objective.
According to the caution letter sent to Chief Adegboyega Oyetola, and signed by the President of APFFLON, Comrade, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, the Minister was commended for his courage to disburse the much-touted fund, which previous administrations for about the past 15 years (fifteen) had shied away from its disbursement.
Comrade Ogunojemite, in the letter dated 30th April 2025, noted that as noble and patriotic as the intention to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF, so will painstaking effort be required to ensure the fund gets to the right people who would judiciously use the fund exactly for the maritime industry’s benefit.
The letter urged the Minister, Adegboyega Oyetola, to conduct a proper verification of actual ship owners that are still in business, and also design ways to ascertain credit ratings of all the bonafide Nigerian ship owners, before the actual disbursement to individual companies.
He reminded the Minister of the sordid experience of the past and urged the agency saddled with the disbursement of NVVF, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to leave no stone unturned at ensuring such error which turned out inimical to the industry it was intended to lift up, should never be repeated either by omission or by commission.
An excerpt of the letter says, “We advised that before the fund is disbursed to the beneficiaries, a committee should be set up to verify credit ratings of the ship owners and ensure that they are not indebted to any financial institution both locally and abroad to avoid diverting the fund to loans repayment, thereby defeating the intent for which the fund was given in the first place”.
The letter reiterated past experience with the disbursement of Ship Acquisition and Ship Building Fund which was in the neighborhood of $2 million to $2.5 million USD per ship owner was diverted by some of the beneficiaries to marry many more wives and took chieftaincy titles with nothing to show for it on the long run
A caveat contained in the highly invaluable letter stated thus, “the reason given above as well as many others informed our writing you at this auspicious moment to ensure that due diligence is done to sift the real ship owners who needed this fund to improve on their operations and those masquerading as ship owners waiting for free fund to fund their lavish lifestyle”’
Tracking The Usage of Disbursements
According to the content of the freight forwarders’ letter, the government was advised to go the extra length by conducting some form of surveillance of all companies’ beneficiaries of the fund.
The letter urged among other things, “We also advise that even when this fund is finally disbursed, it should be closely monitored by the ministry to ensure that the fund is channeled to the aim for which it was disbursed in the first place otherwise, the rationale behind its disbursement will not be achieved.”
APFFLON pledged to cooperate with the federal government in any way so as to achieve the success of the patriotic and business decision to aid the growth and development of seafarers and all other enterprises related to achieving the vitality of the nation’s marine and blue economy.
Recall the Minister had earlier in the year announced the fund would be disbursed in August 2025, and the concerned agency, NIMASA, had also made public that it would provide 50% of the funding, the Primary Lending Institutions would contribute 35%, while the ship owners are expected to contribute the remaining 15% as equity.
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