The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have met with the five Primary lending institutions (PLIs) selected by the federal government to drive the disbursement process of Cabotage Vessels Financing Funds ( CVFF).

The PLIs approved for the fund’s disbursement are Zenith bank, Polaris bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) Jaiz bank, and Union bank.

Addressing the Heads of the financial institutions at the Corporate Headquarters of the agency Tuesday, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, spelt out the expectations of the government to the PLIs over the long-awaited disbursement of the Cabotage funds.

According to him, the desire of the government was to disburse the funds as quickly as possible but also to avoid the mistakes of the previous intervention funds.

He said the funds are ready and the agency was ready to collaborate with the lending institutions to ensure the success of the project.

Reacting to the request of one of the banks for a 50 percent guarantee by the benefiting ship owners, Dr. Jamoh reminded them that the 50 percent counterpart funding from NIMASA is in dollars which he said would be sent to the banks.

He warned that government would frown at any unnecessary demand for collaterals which may scare the ship owners from accessing the loans.

”We don’t want a situation whereby the banks will be asking for the father and mother of the ship owners and other collaterals that may make the prospective beneficiaries of the funds get scared”

He advised them that in as much as the issue is within the purvey of the banks, he noted that the banks, as a way of securing their investments, could tie the funds to particular shipyards from where the vessels purchased by the money are coming from.

He also asked the banks to look at the area of cabotage contracts secured by the beneficiaries which the bank can use as part of the guarantee.

Jamoh warned that asking for any other guarantee may slow the process of disbursement which government frowns at.

Earlier,  the head of enterprises, Polaris bank, Femi Aribaloye, raised concerns on the risks involved on the part of the banks and the volatility of the shipping industry

“Whatever it is that we needed to do in terms of structure and interest will be carried out, but I think the ultimate or the most important thing here is to ensure that this thing is successful and that’s why we are here and that’s why this particular fund is now being disbursed in collaboration with the bankers.”We are also very much aware of the environment in which we operate, we know things can be a little bit turbulent, and policies and the economic situation might change so, I just want to find out since its also within the purview of the Ministry of Transportation, if there is anything that can be done to further minimize the risk that the PLIs are going to be carrying.

” We look at the chance of the possibility of a partial guarantee because as financial institutions, we would like to ensure that everything is done rightly,” he said.

However, NIMASA DG disclosed that the agency had given the disbursing institutions 72 hours to come up with harmonised position on the modalities for disbursement of the dollar component of the funds which is put at $350 million.

According to him, the banks are expected to come up with issues such as the interest rate, tenor, collateral, and other requirements needed to access the fund.

According to him, the interest rate must be of international best practices because the money to be released to the banks is in foreign currencies and not local currency.He, however, stated further that the disbursement of  CVFF can’t start without stakeholders’ engagement, saying that was why the agency met with PLIs.

“We can’t start disbursement without stakeholders’ engagement, therefore, stakeholders’ engagement starts today(Tuesday)

” We are on track, we have started with the PLIs and all five of them are here today. We have listened to them and they listened to us and from all indications, they are ready for us as well.”

“What we want them to do now is to allow them to come up with a collective decision and that cannot take more than 72 hours.

“As we are leaving this boardroom, they will sit down and decide on a date because we don’t want them to come individually to us with their own interest rate, we want them to have a consensus and a standard template on the disbursement of funds as well as the interest rate.

” This is what we advised them to do and as soon as they finish that, we will then invite the shipowners,” he said.

When asked what the interest rate and the collaterals needed by shipowners to access the loans are, he said the guidelines will disclose that.

“The guidelines will tell us the interest rate and how the interest rate is supposed to be, the tenor, and the collateral because we won’t allow them to come and make the shipowners feel very insecure.”

“I mentioned to them on the issue of collateral, you all have NIMASA money with you, so all these things will be deliberated among themselves, let’s allow them to go through our guidelines seriously and see how they can adjust within themselves because we are giving them international currency, not Nigerian currency, they cannot start looking at Nigeria lending rate but the uniform international best practices so we are still on track because the guidelines stipulated everything, “he said.

Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of Jaiz bank, Dr. Sirajo Salisu, assured indigenous shipowners that the fund would be disbursed to them at the appropriate time.He, however, warned the shipowners that CVFF is not a grant or money that can be received without paying back to the banks.

“We will try our best to partner with the beneficiaries or the proposed beneficiaries of these funds and I believe they are much aware that this is not a grant, this is not  money that they will just take away, this is money that is meant for a purpose and we will ensure that that purpose is achieved to the benefits of the country.”

NIMASA will contribute 50 percent of counterpart funds, the banks (PLIs) will provide 35 percent while the remaining 15 percent will be provided by the benefiting ship owners.