AUTHORITY of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has disclosed that it had so far shortlisted 11 companies to benefit from the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund.

It also said that it was seeking approval from the Federal Government for to cancel duties for new Nigerian flagged ships.

According to News Agency of Nigeria, Director-General, NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, made this known in a statement on Saturday, in Lagos.

He noted that following the agency’s advertisement for banks to express interest in the disbursement of the CVFF fund, four primary lending banks had also been shortlisted.

According to him, NIMASA had made presentations to the Ministry of Transportation asking to oversee the four primary lending institutions, as required by law, to come up with guidelines on the disbursement.

Jamoh said that the Treasury Single Account policy had affected the timely disbursement of the fund.

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He said, “The CVFF account has two components. There is a dollar and naira component. As of the time we came into office, over a year ago and now, we have over N32bn and $209m.”

The NIMASA DG noted that the country was also projecting to achieve a zero-duty rate on importation of new Nigerian flagged vessels, as part of incentives for indigenous ship owners and targeted at discouraging importation of rickety ships into the country.