LAGOS- The National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is to float a new maritime fund to support small and medium scale investors in the industry.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Ade Dosunmu, disclosed this in Lagos at the opening of a five-day entrepreneurial training and capacity building for Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) operators in the maritime sector.
According to him, NIMASA will continue to explore various funding options because of the importance of funds to the development of SMEs.
NIMASA manages the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), which is meant to assist indigenous ship owners to acquire more vessels.
Dosunmu explained that recently, a group of private investors approached the agency with a proposal to float a maritime sector fund and that the agency had been working on the ‘window’.
He said that he believed that the synergetic effect of the proposed fund, coupled with the traditional CVFF and the maritime fund, would provide the much-needed leverage for the maritime industry.
He added that NIMASA had also finalised plans to strengthen the Business Development and Advisory Desk (BDAD) of its shipping development mandate.
The desk, he said, would be responsible for the provision of technical assistance to Nigerians interested in investing in the maritime sector.
“This will no doubt compliment the existing collaboration with the NIPC aimed at attracting investments into the Nigerian maritime industry,’’ NAN quotes Dosunmu as saying.
He described the workshop, organised by NIMASA and SMEDAN, as “an important component of our long-standing collaboration with SMEDAN”.
Dosunmu added that the workshop was the third in its series and the objective was to ensure that SMEs benefit from the activities and programmes of SMEDAN.
He said that the first and second phases, which involved the sensitisation and assessment of the SME operators in the maritime sector were conducted simultaneously in Port Harcourt , Warri and Lagos last year.
The Acting Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr. Wale Fasanya, said that about 100 maritime operators were selected for the training programme.
Fasanya said that the joint programme between SMEDAN and NIMASA was “another manifestation of our advocacy for Public-Public-Partnership (PPP) for the development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sub-sector of the economy”.
He noted that the issue of entrepreneurial skills had been taken for granted and this had in turn translated to high business mortality rates.
“Hardly do one out of every five enterprises live up to the fifth anniversary in Nigeria.
“The matter of entrepreneurship training can therefore not be taken for granted anymore, if the MSMEs in Nigeria are to live up to their generic qualities wealth and employment creation as well as poverty alleviation,’’ Fasanya said.
He said that the agency would make the best use of the unique opportunity of the NIMASA initiative of capacity building, given the global and capital intensive nature of the maritime industry.
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