The Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA), said it has shortlisted 11 companies to benefit from the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
Director- General, NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, made this known on Saturday in a statement.
Jamoh said following the agency’s advertisement for banks to express interest in the disbursement of the CVFF fund, four primary lending banks had also been shortlisted.
He said NIMASA had made presentations to the Ministry of Transportation asking to oversee the four primary lending institutions, as required by law, to come up with guidelines on the disbursement.
Jamoh who said the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy had affected the timely disbursement of the fund, explained that the proceeds of the fund was owned by the federal government, contrary to speculations that the money belonged to the shipowners.
He said,“The CVFF account is not under NIMASA’s control, in the sense that it cannot use the money. It must go through a process and that is why we have not been able to disburse the fund.
“With the way the Cabotage Act of 2003 is designed, disbursement from primary lending institutions as stated in the act, cannot happen now, because the operations of TSA in all government agencies accounts now comes from TSA.
“We now must adapt to a system where we can operate from the TSA and that is the process we are going through now.
