Headlines

Why Kenya has been preferred candidate for IMO category C ahead of Nigeria

President Uhuru Kenyatta tours the modern shipyard at the Mtongwe Navy base in Mombasa after commissioning it on December 17, 2021

Eyewitness reporter

Kenya has continued to develop its maritime infrastructure to position itself in the global maritime industry.

This has given the East African country an edge over Nigeria in the International Maritime Organisation(IMO) where it has consistently beaten Nigeria to the category C seat.

In 2019, Nigeria lost the seat by one vote to Kenya.

In the just-concluded 2021 edition of the IMO elections in London, while Nigeria failed in its sixth attempt to clinch the seat, Kenya retained the diadem in the council elections.

What makes Kenya thick in maritime Industry.

The East African country has continued to develop indigenous capacity in shipbuilding and repairs.

Last week, the country unveiled the largest shipyard in sub-Saharan Africa

The modern shipyard was located at the Mtongwe Navy base in Mombasa, making her the first country in sub-Saharan Africa with such a facility.

Kenya Shipyards Ltd (KSL) has the capacity to handle vessels of more than 4,000 tonnes and 150 metres and will boost the East African country’s status as a maritime hub.

The new facility has the longest slipway, a platform on which ships are secured and winched out of the water into a working area for construction, repair, refitting and maintenance.

The modern shipyard has two ship-building hangers, one 150 metres long and 30 metres high and a smaller one 120 metres long, 20 metres high and 13 metres wide.

President Uhuru Kenyatta officially opened the facility as Kenya eyes the lucrative shipbuilding and repair business.

The Navy project in Mtongwe gives Kenya a competitive advantage in shipbuilding and maritime engineering in eastern and central Africa, with the inauguration of a marine academy in Kisumu helping to boost human resource training for sustainable growth of the industry.

Certified ship welders

KSL will for the first time in Kenya’s history employ its own certified ship welders, which is part of the Kenyan government’s agenda to create over 10,000 jobs per year in the maritime sector, considering all ship welders in Kenya are foreign.

“In the project, Kenya, which owns about 17 military ships, seeks to save $6,800 million per vessel in maintenance fees every 10 years considering that since independence, all Kenyan ships have been serviced and maintained overseas, either in Spain or Netherlands.

Every ship has a lifespan of 10-15 years before a full makeover,” says a notice from the Kenya Defence Forces.

KSL is the anchor industry for the blue economy and will provide civil and modular infrastructure workshops, slipways, jetties, bridges and others required to support the maritime industry.

Kenya has already formed a full department on the national blue economy, which will require specialised vessels such as deep-sea fishing in the exclusive economic zone, where vast untapped marine fisheries resources are found.

Securing Kenya’s marine assets requires well-equipped vessels and KSL will play a key role in offering technical support.

Ship construction in Kenya is not a new concept.

The country built its first vessel – the MV Uhuru II – at the Kisumu port more than 70 years ago.

This is an example of how improving shipping and maritime infrastructure is a key component in Kenya’s economic roadmap, by harnessing maritime resources to propel its industrialisation agenda under Vision 2030.

The global market for ship construction, estimated at $126 billion in 2020, is dominated by South Korea (40 per cent), China (25 per cent) and Japan (15 per cent).

The global maritime trade value is worth $14 trillion, of which 40 per cent, worth $5.6 trillion, passes through the east coast of Africa.

This means that Kenya will for the first time have the chance to access $ 5.6 trillion of the trade that takes place in this region of Africa by ensuring ships pass through Kenya to undergo repair and maintenance.

Maritime stakeholders believed that not until Nigeria starts to harness its boundless maritime potentials will it be taken seriously by the global players who have consecutively denied the country to seat at the global maritime Council.

They pointed to a lot of gaps in the efforts of the government to develop the industry and harness its potentials.

They also decried the inability of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) to deploy the multi-billion naira floating dockyard which has since been bogged down by controversies several years after it was purchased.

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Headlines

EFCC denies disobeying court order on Yahaya Bello

Ola Olukayode, EFCC Chairman

The Eyewitness Reporter

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) has denied the widely held claim that it flouted a court order restraining it from arresting or harassing Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State.

The EFCC said this clarification became necessary against the backdrop of arguments and counter-arguments on whether the anti-graft agency has disobeyed a court order concerning the botched arrest of the former governor of Kogi State.

In a Press Statement signed by the EFCC’s Acting Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, the Commission clearly pointed out that though Bello sought refuge in a fundamental rights enforcement action through an order granted by Justice Isa Jamil Abdulallahi of the Kogi State High Court, the order did not vitiate or nullify an order made by the Federal High Court for the arrest of the former governor for the purpose of his arraignment.“The enrolled Order of the Kogi State High Court only granted an order to enforce Bello’s right to personal liberty and freedom of movement, it didn’t preclude the Federal High Court ‘to make any Order as it may deem just in the determination of the rights of the Applicant and the Respondent as may be submitted to her for consideration and determination”, he said.

He further stressed that “The Order made by the Federal High Court for the arrest of Mr. Yahaya Bello for the purpose of his arraignment is not in conflict with the Order of the Kogi State High Court.

“The case before the Federal High Court is a criminal charge which is different from the fundamental rights enforcement action that is the subject of an appeal”.

Uwujaren pointed out that the EFCC had a shining track record in the prosecution of politically exposed persons and would continue to exercise its mandate in the overall interest of the nation.

” He admonished Bello to turn himself in and answer to the charges preferred against him by the Commission.

He called on all patriotic Nigerians to lend their voices in support of the Commission stressing that ” the EFCC will not relent in its quest to wrestle corruption to the ground”

Economy

CBN sells $15.830m at N1.021 per dollar to 1,583 BDCs

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso

The Eyewitness Reporter

In its ongoing effort to ensure liquidity in the foreign exchange market which is expected to ease the pressure on the naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday disbursed the sum of $15,830,000m to 1,583 licensed Bureau De Change Operators at $10, 000 each.

In a letter dated April 22nd, 2024 and addressed to the President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria and signed by Dr Hassan Mahmud, the Director, Trade and Exchange Department of the CBN, the beneficiaries are mandated to sell allocated forex to eligible end users ” at a spread of not more than 1.5 percent above the purchase price.

The CBN said the sale of forex to the BDCs will meet market demand (retail-end) for invisible transactions.

The apex bank however advised all the BDCs to continue to abide by the rules and conditions as stipulated in the operational guidelines.

The beneficiary BDCs have trading locations at Lagos, Abuja, Akwa and Kano.

Headlines

NPA commences rehabilitation of dilapidated infrastructure at Lagos ports with $700m loan from Citibank

Mohammed Bello-Koko, NPA MD

The Eyewitness Reporter

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has finally secured a loan of $700 million from Citibank to be funded by the UK Export Finance (UKEF) , an export credit agency, to rehabilitate the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, Lagos.

The Ports Authority has also opened a discussion with another funding agency to secure financing for upgrading the Eastern Ports including Calabar, Warri, Onne and Rivers Ports as well as the reconstruction of the Escravos breakwater.

Speaking in Lagos on Wednesday during the signing of the mandate letter with Citibank Nigeria, Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said the mandate letter will be sent to the Debt Management Office for final review and approval.

He said the funds are ready and the reconstruction of the Lagos Ports will start soonest even as the NPA perfects plans to sign another mandate letter for the upgrading of the Eastern Ports in about a month.

“In the last two years, NPA has realised the need for us to rehabilitate and reconstruct the ports all over the country.

” We have been having discussions with multilateral funding agencies who have sent various proposals that we have reviewed.

“What we did is to further discussion with interested parties and we realised is better is to separate the ports in Lagos from the ports in the East, and we are in discussion with other funding agencies to fund the construction of ports outside Lagos,” he said.

According to him, the Citibank facility is the cheapest for the Ports Authority because it comes with affordable interest rates.

“Port efficiency is not about automation which we have already begun, it’s also about the physical infrastructure, which must be in place and that’s why we are automating. Automation will naturally bring efficiency, increase revenue and plug leakages, ” he said.

Bello-Koko said that the NPA putting the Port Community System in place, which is a platform that will improve trade facilitation.

“Currently in Nigeria, importers or exporters fill up to 30 to 40 forms for one transaction but the Port Community System will reduce the numbers of forms, human interference and ensure speedy clearance process in or out of the country,” he added

Earlier, the Managing Director of Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ireti Samuel-Ogbu, said the bank is committed to supporting NPA and the federal government in bridging the infrastructure gap.

“We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with NPA especially being the collection bank for foreign and local currency port levies.

“Now, supporting this strategic initiative through export credit financing to upgrade port infrastructure in Tin-Can and Lagos Ports is commendable. However, we are committed in supporting NPA and the Nigerian Government in all its endeavours, especially in the infrastructure space.

According to her, Citibank was opportune to have met with Wale Edun, Minister of Finance, a few weeks ago where the port upgrading project was mentioned and he was very delighted about the project.

“Since NPA generates its own foreign revenue, we will be able to support foreign facility from our resources because this project is very strategic and an important project for NPA and the country at large.

“We are looking forward to this project and we thank NPA for giving us this opportunity and hope to bring this to fruition as soon as possible,” Samuel-Ogbu said.

In 2023, Bello Koko said the NPA was sourcing about $1.1b in loans to rehabilitate the dilapidated infrastructure at the nation’s ports.