Speaking to journalists over the weekend, during a press conference themed, ‘The Marine & Blue Economy ministry-A call for heedfulness,’ chairman of WIMA, Rollen Macfoy, said barge owners were subjected to multiple registrations with different agencies.
She, however, decried difficulties in registering vessels and barges in the country and urged the minister to ensure Ease of Doing Business , in the marítime industry. According to her, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Nigerian Shippers Council and the National Inland Waterways Authority , among others, register barge operators.
Macfoy added that multiple registrations would affect the cost of doing business, which would finally be transferred to the common man in the street. She said, “The agenda we have for the new minister is so numerous but let me mention a few; one is the ease of doing business. It is the A-Z of any economy. In a situation where it is so difficult to register barges, it is so difficult to register barges up till the last time I checked, barge owners register with the NSC, NIMASA, and NIWA, and all these things are money.