Challenges and Prospects of Indigenous Shipowners’ Participation in Oil Shipment In Nigeria

If Nigeria's economy is essentially import based, then the issue and fact that her infrastructure for industrial development and export are grossly underdeveloped, when the nation is having abundant national mineral resources to improve on her foreign earning, being a maritime and oil producing nation, Nigeria is not gaining enough from this natural resources due to the poor position of policy guiding the shipping trade and oil business. In this research work emphasis was laid on indigenous shipping operations in the areas of cargo oil shipment (importation and exporting) with the necessary policy guiding the operation in the business i.e. the National Shipping Policy Act of April, 1987 and the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD) code of conduct on conference lines and the role of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in area of oil shipment as defined by the NNPC policy on oil transportation by sea. Emphasis on the demerits of foreign shipping lines, continued domination of the shipping trade particularly in area of oil cargo; the challenges, prospect and the need of indigenous participation in oil shipment business, that Nigeria can use at the benefit of balance of payment was researched. While, the foreign shipping lines and operators continue to dominate the oil shipment trade in Nigeria even at the turn of the 21st century, Nigeria's corporate policy on shipping especially as it affects her indigenous operations remains hazy and at best epileptic. This research work in addition unraveled some of the policy and action that have kept Nigerian Indigenous Shipping Companies in a perpetual state of near paralysis and how such avoidable trends could be reversed in favour of growth and development of the Nation in general.