In a bid to tackle bottlenecks associated with the movement of containerised cargoes within Nigeria and the West African region, Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited has unveiled the first indigenous containership.
Speaking during the unveiling at Tincan Island Port on Wednesday, the Vice President of Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited, Mrs Bernadine Eloka, explained that the ship named ‘MV Ocean Dragon’ can carry 349 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers at once.
She said that the vessels aimed to service the needs of Nigerians in terms of the movement of container goods from port to port within and outside the country.
“We are here to unveil the acquisition of Clarion Shipping Line MV Ocean Dragon, which is a vessel meant to service the Nigerian needs in terms of a container movement from port to port.
“The vessel is brought to provide the solution. That solution is instead of people to now move their containers by road from Lekki to Apapa, Tincan, Onne, Port Harcourt, Calabar, MV Ocean Dragon can easily load 349 containers and take them easily within two days to any part of Nigeria’s port,” she said.
She reiterated that aside from operating in Nigerian coastal waters, the vessel is also meant to service the nearby West African countries like Cotonou, Lome, Ghana, Sierra Leone, “even as far as Egypt and South Africa.”
She, however, lamented the challenges the company faced while carrying out the project. “The basic challenge is what all of us know now in Nigeria, that to be able to raise funds, to invest in something like this, is not easy. So it’s finance that was the actual headache. So, other than that funding that gave us challenges, we don’t have any other challenges,” she said.
She admitted that though the company has ocean-going badges, it can’t do what the containership can do.
The VP expressed fear that the company may face some challenges with the full implementation of cabotage, adding that they have met all the requirements by all the agencies of the government involved.
“Maybe the challenge, which I think we are going to experience, is the issue of full implementation of cabotage, because that’s the reason we bought this. If you are a fully indigenous shipping line, you have some benefits from cabotage, and that was why we bought this vessel.
“So we have done it, you know to be the first container liner in Nigeria, fully owned by Nigerians, in compliance with the government regulations, because we have met all the requirements that is needed, both from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, the National Inland Waterways Authority, the Nigerian Ports Authority the Nigeria Customs Service among others,” she said.
Earlier, the President of the Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited, Mr. Innocent Eloka, maintained that the company is now strategically positioned for all port operations.
“We do hope that Clarion Group is now strategically positioned for all port operations and relying on people, processes, and advanced technology to provide superior services to our valued clients. Will not relent in her efforts to drastically reduce vessel waiting time, improve space management, and ensure quick turnaround to make port operations less stressful,” he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited, Ada Eloka, said, “The plan we have for the vessel is for it to do Nigerian West Africa, because we recognise it as a market, as a gap that we could fill. And so we are hoping that we will have many people who will be interested in doing business with us,” she said.
