MARITIME ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Cabotage is a legal tool that restricts or reserves access to maritime or aviation trade within a country’s territorial jurisdiction to local capacities. The Nigerian Maritime and Cabotage Act was enacted by the Nigerian government in response to calls from prominent maritime experts and operators for the government to make concerted efforts to harness indigenous maritime capacity and utilize the abundant opportunities in the sector for the benefit of the Nigerian people in order to reverse the trend in which the country’s maritime trade, both territorial and extraterritorial, is still dominated by foreign operators.
The government’s intention in instituting the cabotage regime is to promote the development of the maritime industry through an interventionist scheme aimed at increasing local capacity.
in the face of choking external competition and dominance.
Cabotage is a worldwide practice that dates back more than 60 years, a contemporary economic approach that justifies intervention of this type to induce some determined result (as opposed to the classical economic approach of free market forces), as an acceptable tool for achieving some set economic goals, particularly where competition is unfair and dominance is prevalent. It has been observed that this practice has been influenced by a variety of factors, including reserving all or a portion of the national market opportunity to national flag ships or aircrafts for political, economic, or security reasons. Other reasons for this global protective policy include the development of indigenous human and capital capacity. These are some examples.
one of the primary goals of Nigerian maritime cabotage.
The Coastal and Inland Shipping (cabotage) Act, 2003 covers the carriage of goods and passengers by vessels and any other mode of transportation, mineral, other natural resources, and any marine transportation or commercial activity within Nigeria’s territorial waters as prescribed by the Exclusive Economic Zone Act CAP 116, laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990. The Act aims to limit the use of foreign vessels in domestic coastal trade, thereby promoting the development of indigenous tonnage.
It has been two and a half years since the cabotage policy was enacted, or one and a half years since it was implemented. Nigerians have yet to notice any significant changes. change. The cabotage trade is still dominated by foreigners. From the perspective of the target group, Nigerian Shipping Companies, the question remains: to what extent has cabotage delivered its intended opportunities? Given that only ten private member bills passed the Legislative Rubicon between 1999 and 2003: Why have the same forces not succeeded in ensuring a merely robust and determined implementation of the cabotage policy? What factors are causing the program’s slow start-up? What exactly are the issues? Are they linked to the very nature of shipping development politics, the process or policy, or a combination of these forces? What are the
What are the consequences of the cabotage laws, and what benefit does cabotage provide to Nigerian entrepreneurs? These and other issues will be examined by the researcher as part of the dissertation writing process.
Problem Expression
A maritime cabotage law is a piece of legislation that allows navigation and trading within a country’s coasts or from port to port within a country to be exclusively reserved for and carried out by its national flagships and nationals. Its sole purpose is to regulate domestic shipping. It includes navigation and trading on the nation’s inland waterways in this regard. The maritime cabotage law may be found in a single piece of shipping legislation or in a combination of two or more pieces of shipping legislation from different countries.
There is one.
Another type of maritime cabotage is short sea shipping or regional shipping, which is concerned with the transportation of goods and or passengers between ports of a given group of countries within a specific economic grouping (e.g., Mercosur and the EU) via coastal ships, ferry services, and/or port services such as tugs, dredges, craft maintenance and repair, pilotage launches, bunkering and vessel supply, and so on. Cabotage policies are implemented in such regions or sub-regions, rather than in individual countries, as a result of inter-governmental agreements, to promote local or regional employment and to control regional and/or sub-regional coastal trade (Maritime Resources Development Issues and Challenges; 2003, P.70).
The goal of this dissertation is to have a comprehensive report that critically examines the issues surrounding cabotage services in terms of their impact on Nigerian entrepreneurial opportunities for growth. Are there any economic benefits to Nigeria from Nigerian maritime cabotage? What are these advantages, and how do they help Nigerian entrepreneurs? These and other findings will be revealed, and recommendations will be made, to improve the formulation of sound scientific and economic solutions to issues and policies in these areas. The research work is expected to aid the NMA, entrepreneurs, other governmental agencies, and other stakeholders in carrying out their statutory functions, including promotional and regulatory roles and measures designed to facilitate the nation’s development stance and growth.
The maritime industry.
The Study’s Objectives
The overarching goal of this research is to investigate maritime entrepreneurship and economic development in Nigeria. The research is guided by the following specific objectives:
To identify Nigerian maritime cabotage as it currently exists under the Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA).
Identifying the various opportunities available to Nigerian entrepreneurs through cabotage in the maritime industry.
To identify the current issues impeding the economic viability of Nigeria’s maritime industry services.
To identify the obstacles that the Nigerian entrepreneur faces in the cabotage business.
To provide solutions to Nigerian entrepreneurs experiencing difficulties in the maritime industry.
The Importance of Research
The findings of this dissertation are likely to spark additional research studies into Nigerian maritime cabotage and its impact on the nation’s economy, and/or as an interventionist in boosting Nigerian entrepreneurial activities. Indeed, the passage of the cabotage Act by the National Assembly is expected to open up a new world of opportunities for business ventures in the maritime cabotage sector. New opportunities are constantly sought, discovered, grasped, and acted upon as the backbone of any entrepreneurial setup, to the benefit of both the consumer and the entrepreneur. To that end, maritime experts, regulators, and entrepreneurs must pool their resources to provide insights into how to capitalize on opportunities in the maritime industry. Potential maritime entrepreneurs should view these as good business opportunities.
to be used in order to create job opportunities, train seafarers, and provide / build ships and other ocean-going vessels, all of which will have an impact on the nation’s economy and the well-being of Nigerian entrepreneurs. It is also expected that the study will stimulate and provide the needed impetus to the nation’s maritime industry’s economic growth, and thus the standard of living in general.
Research Issues
To guide the study, the following research questions were derived from the objectives:
What exactly is Nigerian maritime cabotage as defined by the Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA)?
What are the various opportunities that cabotage in the maritime industry provides for Nigerian entrepreneurs?
What are the current issues?
that jeopardize the economic viability of Nigeria’s maritime industry services?
What are the challenges for Nigerian entrepreneurs in the maritime cabotage business?
What solutions can be offered to Nigerian entrepreneurs in relation to their maritime business problems?
The Study’s Scope
The scope of this research will be limited to the impact of Nigerian maritime cabotage on the nation’s economy and entrepreneurial opportunities for economic development in Nigeria. This dissertation may be restricted to maritime cabotage, also referred to as domestic waterborne transportation. The researcher would also like to emphasize that there are limitations in the area of data collection; some useful data required are treated as confidential, and permission must be obtained.
before they are made public. Even for parties who want to conduct oral interviews, permission must be obtained first. Another noticeable constraint is time.
However, it should be noted that frantic efforts were made to ensure that useful information was eventually gathered to improve the study’s objective conclusion.
Terms with Operational Definitions
Maritime: relating to the sea, particularly in relation to seaborne trade or naval matters.
Entrepreneurship is the process of creating, launching, and running a new business, which is usually a small one at first. Entrepreneurs are the people who start these businesses.
Maritime Entrepreneurship: refers to the promotion of innovative business concepts related to the maritime economy and the values of sustainable entrepreneurship, with the goal of improving entrepreneurial mentality.
with socio-economic benefits and the enhancement of business activity.
Economic development is the rise of a nation’s people’s standard of living from a low-income (poor) to a high-income (rich) economy. When the local quality of life improves, economic development increases. When social scientists study economic development, they examine a wide range of factors.