Nigeria’s Minister of Marine and Blue Economy says significant progress has been made in processing applications under the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) framework.
By Blue Africa News
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) management has a new challenge to tackle, as it, alongside the country’s Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s maritime sector.
NIMASA has been directed to work closely with the 12 approved Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) so as to accelerate the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to qualified Nigerian shipowners, in a move that will end more than two decades of delays surrounding the US$360 million disbursement.
The approved PLIs include Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank, Lotus Bank, Union Bank, First Bank, Jaiz Bank, SunTrust Bank and Globus Bank. Initially, only 5 banks had been identified as PLIs before more names were added to the list.
Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy in a statement issued over the weekend by his special adviser, Bolaji Akinola, said significant progress had been made in processing applications under the CVFF framework.
The minister disclosed that NIMASA had received 92 funding applications. Twenty have already been submitted to the PLIs while one more application has been reviewed and forwarded for approval.
“The push for the operationalisation of the CVFF marks a major milestone in the federal government’s efforts to strengthen indigenous participation in Nigeria’s maritime industry,” the minister said.
The operationalisation of the CVFF, he said, marks a major milestone in the federal government’s efforts to strengthen indigenous participation in Nigeria’s maritime industry.
However, observers say the process has been nothing but slow with NIMASA failing to meet the earlier set deadlines. During a stakeholders’ forum on May 12, 2025 in Lagos, NIMASA Director-General, Dayo Mobereola, pledged to ensure that that funding was made accessible within 3 to 4 months after agreed disbursements, starting from the end of August 2025.
“What we have done is to streamline the guidelines according to what has been approved by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to ensure that it takes nothing less than three to four months for indigenous ship owners to access the funds,” the Director General said, then.
He spoke a few days after the minister had directed NIMASA to commence the process for the long-awaited disbursement of the fund.In January, 2026 the CVFF Application Portal was launched in Lagos, perhaps adding urgency to the long overdue process.
During the inaugural Blue Africa Conference and Exhibition (BACE) in Lagos, Nigeria on August 13-14, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Transport and Aviation, Ambassador Alhaji Fanday Turay said progress in Africa’s Blue Economy is being pegged back by lack of massive funding from the private sector.
The minister said the public sector doesn’t have financial muscles to fully and effectively invest in Africa’s vast coastline, spanning over 30,000 kilometers.
“Like I said in my statement, as a government, we cannot do it alone. We can’t do it alone. And therefore, we need the private sector. They have to come in. And not only the private sector, we have to have intergovernmental cooperation,” said the Sierra Leone minister.
“Because as Sierra Leone, I can’t just sit there, because we are just by the ocean, and say, okay, we are by the ocean, and then we have one of the best harbours in the world and say, okay, we’re just going to stop with that. No, we have to invest.”
And that is perhaps why the Nigerian government is collaborating with banks to actualize the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund.
Established under the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003, CVFF was designed to empower Nigerian shipping companies by offering structured financing for vessel acquisition. Now, the funds are being made available in a move that is expected to shore up Nigeria’s maritime sector.
Oliver Ochieng, Blue Africa News
