Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, has disclosed that the
association commands a fleet ownership of not less than 150 ships.
The ships, according to the association, ranges from oil tankers,
cargo handling ships, platform support vessels, pipelay vessels,
dredgers, fast intervention vessels, etc.
President of SOAN, Dr. MkGeorge Okon Onyung, who disclosed this
recently at the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair, said ship
business was the most important trade on earth, as ships handle about
60percent of the world’s trade.
Onyung emphasized on the need to build ships in-country as well as the
need for the training and retraining of crew members, saying that
without crew members there are no ship owners.
According to him, We command fleet ownership of 150 ships, we command
the most important part of local content. Every business logistics is
very important.
Our shipping business is segmented into three, namely; ship, crew, and
contracts. There is a need to build ships in-country, also rigs,
drilling ships, construction vessels, etc.
Without crew members, three is no ship owner. There is a need for
training of the crew members. Crew members are trusted, people.
Crewmen must be trained and retrained. They are the most important
trader on earth because they handle 60percent of the world’s trade.
On contracts, the SOAN boss, said members of the association are ready
to key into the over 80 oil and gas opportunities identified by the
Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, which would be
developed by oil firms in a short and long term, with the estimated
cumulative value of the projects exceeding $100billion.
We the
Ship Owners Association of Nigeria are ready to get the contracts, to
work with NCDMB and other agencies to get funds and we cannot
overemphasize the need to train our crew members.