NISA Ocean Transport Inaugurated, To Kick Off Operations With 2 Vessels

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - June 4, 225: The Nigeria Indigenous Shipowners Association, (NISA), has inaugurated its shipping line christaned "NISA Ocean Transport Limited, NOTL, which is set to commence operations with two acquired vessels.

Board members of the NISA Ocean Transport Limited.

At the inauguration of the 6-man board members, the Chairman of NISA Board of Trustees, Isaac Jolapomo, disclosed that the company’s board comprises 2 members of the association’s BoT, 2 NISA executives and 2 NISA members.

Jolapamo noted that the association had attempted to establish this company on two other occasions in the past but expressed confidence that the new company under the leadership of Omatseye and his team will succeed.

According to him, “This is the third time we are attempting this and we have chosen people who have integrity. We chose two members from the NISA BoT – Sonny Omatseye and Tunji Brown. They were also part of the executives at a point when the association was at its strongest. We chose two present executives – President, Sola Adewunmi and General Secretary, Jibril Rowaye because they are our leaders that we elected. We also chose two members Paul Jegede and Emeka Obiogbulu.

“Your responsibility is to drive this company in a manner that it will see it start generating profits for the association. The tenure is 3 years for the BoT members while 6 years applies for the executives and general members.”.

Speaking after the inauguration, the Chairman of the new shipping line, Sunny Omatseye, said the new shipping firm intends to acquire two vessels, a 30,000 tons tanker and an LPG vessel.

Omatseye expressed confidence that they will get patronage from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and the Nigerian Liquidified Natural Gas, NLNG.

According to him, 

"Actually, what the association has decided is that nobody is having the majority share. It's for all members of the shipping industry.

"People are welcome to join the association and our intention is to see how we can provide our ship and take more of the foreigners off our coast. 

"We are also looking at the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF and other financing bodies too for funding. 

"We expect that the Nigerian Shipowners will be the first group to be considered for the CVFF when disbursement commences. 

Speaking further he said, the issuance of waivers to foreign shipowners is a major problem but noted that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA is also looking at the issue of waiver.

He also disclosed that the Minister for Marine and Blue Economy, has assured that the issue of waivers will be addressed because President Bola Tinubu is looking at how to streamline shipping operations so that Nigerians can participate fully. 

"If the waiver issue is looked into, I think most of the foreigners will move out and leave the industry for Nigerians.