Rector of the Certified Institute of Shipping (CIS), Prof. Alex Okuwashi has said the passage of the Certified Institute of Shipping of Nigeria (CISN) Bill will assist in building human capacity in various areas of the shipping industry, including shipbuilding.
He said this while briefing newsmen in his office recently.
Okuwashi however urged the National Assembly, maritime institutions and all practitioners in the industry, to rally round and ensure that the CISN Bill “is eventually passed to sanitise the industry”.
Okwuashi a professor of maritime administration and international shipping, said the CISN Bill would resolve the gap in the National Shipping Policy Act, 1987, if signed into law.
The Rector however, noted that the CISN Bill, which was submitted to the National Assembly some years ago, had sailed through the House of Representatives and was presently in the Senate.
Okuwashi said that shipping business accounts for 80 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.
He said that transportation and the sale of crude oil, which fetched a large amount of foreign exchange, were done through shipping.
Okwuashi expressed concern that the cost of transporting crude oil out of the country was enormous, adding that it accounted for almost half of the total cost of the commodity.
According to him, this is because crude oil in Nigeria is sold on Free on Board (FOB) basis.
“The CISN Bill seeks to fill that gap that the nation’s crude oil should not be sold on an FOB basis,” he said.
He opined that if the terms of delivery of a transaction are on FOB basis, the cost of movement of the goods on board a ship is borne by the seller.
It could be recalled that many operators, including the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA), had called for a change in the mode of transaction of crude oil from FOB to Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF).
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.