INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NIGERIAN MARITIME INDUSTRY

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NIGERIAN MARITIME INDUSTRY

PICTURE CREDIT: SERGIO SOUZA

Over the years, the maritime industry has given especially in the area of marine transportation which has made the movement of cargoes of any size and volume possible. This has positively impacted global trade and global logistics value chain.

From statistics carried out by Vessel and co, it can be found that over 90% of world cargo merchandise/trade by volume is carried by seas and from statistics by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), it is observed that over 60% of all maritime activities in west Africa is generated by Nigeria only.

In 2019 report by NIMASA tagged “Nigerian Maritime Industry forecast 2019-2020” described the Nigerian ports as an enabler of economic growth and prosperity and urged Nigerians entrepreneurs to key into the numerous investment opportunities in the Nigerian Maritime Industry.

The investment opportunities includes the following:

1.   SHIP FINANCING:

Shipping is capital intensive because the maritime assets needed are government intervention in this area to provide soft interest long-term loans in the industry.

This also provides an opportunity for the financial sector to key in and provide this finance for prospective investors.

A prospective investor can seek innovative financing modules and other sources of funding away from traditional models

Capital market remains the most important financing option for the enhancement as well as the promotion of shipping business growth and creation of corporate value.

This opportunity for finance house can however be achieved with adequate evaluation and provisioning for risk, appropriate leverage levels and use of financing structures suitable for the Nigerian Maritime Industry.

 

2.   SHIP BUILDING AND REPAIRS

NIMASA has a department solely dedicated to ship building. In 2019-2020 maritime industry forecast as carried out by NIMASA, the maritime industry holds the key to diversifying the economy away from oil and gas, after all there are countries like the Philippines who solely depend on maritime for the bulk of their income.

 

The dependency on maritime in Nigeria calls for more tankers, vessels and the like. The amount currently operating is not enough and more investment is needed.

 

This calls for spirited entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity and invest in ship building and repairs.

 

This sub-sector, remains under-developed and has the potentials of reducing capital flight, because ship owners will not have to repair their ships outside the shores of Nigeria.

 

This is also supported by the cabotage law of Nigeria and there are so many areas entrepreneurs can explore which includes building and repair of barges, merchant ship, dredger, self-propelled barge, floating vessels, lift boat, patrol vessel, jack up barge, crew/supply vessel and many more.

 

Other opportunities that can be explored include human capacity building, technology and funding.

 

With over 3,500 vessels operating in the Nigerian waters, dry-docking remains a critical area of business because many of these boats are dry-docked and repaired outside the shore of Nigeria. This business opportunity must be explored by Nigerian entrepreneurs.

 

3.   MARINE INSURANCE:

The role of insurance in any business cannot be over emphasized because insurance has the ability to mitigate the impact of risks in any business. Insurance also correlate with economic growth because entrepreneurs would be willing to take more risks.

An overview of the insurance business in Nigeria shows that marine insurance is one of the lucrative insurance business in Nigeria, only second to motor insurance.

 

Even at that, the marine insurance business is one of the under-developed and needs more investors as huge opportunities abound in the sector.

 

4.   RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

In any area of life or business, you can never use up creativity, the more you use, the more you have.

 

This is the reason why research and development is necessary in any human endeavour, even in the maritime industry.

 

New approaches and innovations are taking place globally and this calls for the need for entrepreneurs to seize investment opportunities by setting up training and research centres to scale up activities in the maritime sector.

 

5.   LAW OF SEA EXPERTS

The maritime industry on the existing laws of the land coupled with other maritime laws both locally and internationally.

 

This calls for experts or prospective lawyers to seize the numerous opportunities in the industry. Apart from soliciting, opportunities also abound in providing legal documents.

 

6.   MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT

In the 2019 – 2020 forecast by NIMASA, there are plans by the government to float a National vessels that would compete with other vessels internationally.

To achieve this feat, there needs to be an intensive manpower training because the availability of manpower is crucial to the development of the maritime sector.

If done well, the establishment may begin to see influx from student all around the world.

This will lead to employment generation, sea-time for cadets and competitive cost of doing business.