By CHIAZO OGBOLU

A ship chandler, Mrs Violet Williams, has frowned upon the invasion of the Nigerian markets by foreign ship captains for purchase of equipment or supplies instead of going through registered ship chandlers.

Williams disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

A ship chandler is a person who exclusively deals in supplying to a shipping vessel its required commodities.

NAN reports that just as a grocer supplies food grains to households, a ship chandler supplies essentially required commodities to a ship and its crew.

She said the foreign captains prefer to enter the market themselves and make use of chalatants instead of going through the right channel.

According to her, it is not good to use illegal or unlicensed ship chandler for supplies.

Williams described the situation as one of the bottlenecks affecting the growth and development of the sector.

She called for proper regulation of the industry by the government to weed out bad eggs.

“There are too many bottlenecks, one, the government. This is because what we don’t know we can’t give.

“When government does not know the worth and job creation that chandling stands for, they can’t make any legal framework for it.

“How can vessel berth in your port and you see the foreign captains going to the market to buy things for themselves?” she asked.

“The next thing one will hear is that Nigerian chandlers are substandard. But the issue is that they did not approach any chandler, they went and met chalatants who are just after their own monies,” she said.

Williams noted that another bottleneck affecting the sector was lack of confidence in the Nigerian market due to the activities of unregistered chandlers.

She disclosed that some of the captains prefer to source for ordinary water from Ghana or South Africa instead of Nigeria.

“Look at the cow, it has 301 parts, do you know how many vessels berth in Nigerian shores daily and this parts are always in demand.

“But we are not there, the government does not know the economic importance of chandling, so they cannot regulate it.

“Government should look for the true members, there is an association for chandlers, they should get these people and let there be legal framework.

“If there is no legal framework to support, nothing will come out of the sector,” she said.

Williams also the President, Ocean Ambassadors Foundation, recalled that Dr Emeka Enebeli, the former President of the association, during his tenure visited the National Assembly for chandling to be regulated.

She, however, said that nothing happened till date due to the fact that government did not know the potential inherent in the sector.

Williams explained that the sector if properly harnessed would help government to reduce the country’s unemployment rate. (NAN)

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