The proposed establishment of the Maritime Development Bank of Nigeria (MDBN) has been shelved for the Regional Maritime Development Bank (RMDB), which is the brainchild of countries in the West and Central African regions.
The RMDB’s headquarters and presidency have been ceded to Nigeria by the 25 countries that make up the Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa, MOWCA.
The Director of Legal Services at the Federal Ministry of Transport, Mr. Pius Oteh, who spoke to Vanguard on this development, noted that the establishment of a Maritime Bank in Nigeria could send a wrong signal to other countries that are already committed to the formation of the regional maritime bank.
He revealed that the entire members of MOWCA, in 2011, agreed to have a US$1 billion as the capital base of the Bank, adding further that the shareholding of the RMDB has been shared amongst the MOWCA with Nigeria taking the highest equity at 12 percent.
“There is an agreement that dates back to 2011 where the Transport Ministers in West and Central Africa approved and ratified the various agreements on Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa. But there was no serious follow up on these decisions until about four years ago; we have re-energized this process.
“Countries have signed the charter to the Bank and we have enough number of countries to activate the process of the Bank; as at this time the processes of the set up are going on”, he said.
He further revealed that the bank, which will be headquartered in Nigeria, as jointly agreed by the other 24 countries, will have a Nigerian as its president.
“But it is going to be a Private–Public sector driven Bank, so the states in the two sub-region of West and Central Africa collectively have 51 percent of the shareholding of the Bank given to the MOWCA states and these shares were allotted to them on the basis of volume of trade and so naturally Nigeria has the lion share of 12 percent and the other 49 percent will be for institutional investors”, he added.
Investors King gathered that the Regional Maritime Development Bank will ensure funding of ports infrastructure, acquisition of ocean going and crude oil affreightment vessels, aquaculture, human capacity development and deepening of the maritime value chain.
A few months ago, the Nominated Director of the bank, Theo Patrick had disclosed in a statement that the specialised multilateral development financial institution is being berthed to ameliorate the many challenges facing the maritime sector and the indigenous operators, which has defied solutions.
