The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi has called on stakeholders in the maritime sector to focus on local vessel production instead of waiting for foreign bigger vessels which are not available at the moment.
This, he said, would go a long way in creating job opportunities; boosting international trade and also placing the Nigerian maritime industry on the global map.
Comptroller General Adeniyi stated this at the Annual Maritime Finance Conference organised by the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) in conjunction with the NLNG Shipping and Marine Services Limited (NSML) in Lagos on Thursday.
Adeniyi who was represented by Comptroller Dera Nnadi, Customs Area Controller (CAC) of Tin Can Island Command, said that vessel construction needed to be given the necessary supports in the country.
The Customs boss emphasised that vessels are essential to effective and efficient international trade.
According to him, Customs introduced barge operations to ease movement of cargoes in a little way which later because a large investment in the maritime industry.
He said: “In order to support and sustain such move such low hanging fruit as construction of smaller and local vessels need to be encouraged especially now that the president has given the needed support.
“We should look inwards particularly at this time we are experiencing scares resources, Mr. President is encouraging us to look inwards and encourage home grown technology to move forward.
“We need to appreciate locally constructed vessels. We don’t need to wait until we build bigger vessels before we can exercise our expertise. We can’t wait until we have bigger forces to construct bigger vessels, we can start with smaller ones, the lower hanging fruits”.
