The indigenous ship owners identified the need for the Federal Government to encourage investment in shipping business through creation of funds and credit facilities with single digit interest rate to enable them acquire vessels in 2017.

They identified lack of quality vessels as the major reason why Nigerian shipping companies found it difficult to compete with its foreign counterparts, even as they pointed out that this was why foreign-owned ships continued to dominate the shipping sector of the economy.

They argued that indigenous ship owners spend huge sums on payment of import duty and this takes close to 14 per cent of the total cost of importing fully built vessels and their corresponding spare parts, as Nigeria presently lacks capacity to build ships that meet international standards as stipulated by the maritime watchdog, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).