President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday approved the disbursement of the $350m Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund with immediate effect.
The Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, made the disclosure at the commencement of the Batch B third phase of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme held at the Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Sambo also said the fund belonged to shipowners, adding that the Buhari regime had broken a 17-year-old jink with the approval.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved my request for the disbursement of the CVFF Fund. Finally, we are breaking the 17-year-old jinx. By the time we commence disbursement to the beneficiaries; we have made a case that the fund belongs to the Nigerian shipowners. The President, who is a respecter of the law, therefore approved the disbursement of the fund with immediate effect,” the minister stated.
Sambo also said he would meet the Minister of Finance and National Planning and officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria for the immediate disbursement of the fund.
“We shall approach the Minister of Finance and Budget Planning as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria for the immediate disbursement of the fund,” he noted.
He said that even though the fund, which has hit over $350m, was warehoused in the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government, it would be transferred to the approved primary lending institutions.
