By Kelechi Mgboji
Assistant Business Editor
John Akoto is the chairman of Akoto Ventures which provides boat hauling services, domestic and international.
With over 20 years of experience in the industry, the graduate of Nautical Sciences, School of Oceanography, Lagos has seen the good days in maritime business.
Services the indigenous firm has rendered since the13 years of its debut include crew transport, towing of barges, dredger, distressed vessels and other equipment, tug boat services, servicing and repairs, and speed boat charter services.
Others include tanker vessel operations, slop/sludge and slog works, marine fenders and hoses transportation, ship to ship transfer services, fuel and fresh water supply, oil, and gas support.
But the good old days are no more, hard times have descended upon the industry like a swarm of locusts upon a lush farm.
Akoto told TheNiche the industry had been quite fruitful until the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan abandoned the repairs of petroleum refineries in preference for importing petroleum products.
Since then, according to him, activities at the sea ports of Warri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar have whittled down; only the seaports and jetties in Lagos are working.
“The refineries are not working. This has become a big setback to Nigerian ship owners and marine operators,” he reiterated.
“They don’t have jobs any more given the fact that the sea ports and refineries are not working. If ships are not going to Port Harcourt and Warri to load petroleum products and come to Lagos to discharge, then there’s no job for them.
“Operators can no longer pay their workers.
“Like my firm, since the past two years, it has been difficult to pay our staff because jobs have been very difficult in coming. Even to keep the firm running has been tough.
“We used to have over 150 workers but now we have fewer than 15, yet we find it difficult to pay them.
“In our fleet, we have tug boats, ships, oil tankers, supply vessels. Those are the vessels we have for our operations. We haven’t got job for them because the refineries are not working, and the sea ports too.”
Akoto, who recently ventured into hospitality business with his first hotel in Ghana, speaks more on a wide range of issues in the industry.
How comatose refineries ruined maritime business
Tug boats are like a toeing van. If a vessel breaks down, to drag it down from point A to point B, you need a tug boat. It also conveys transloaded goods from vessels working on the high seas.
But when the refineries and the jetties are not working, Chandlers and those working cannot hire your vessels because they don’t need them.
The only way tankers, barges, tug boats, and all these vessels can get jobs is when the refineries and the sea ports are working.
The trailers are very busy on the Apapa-Mile 2 highway because the Apapa sea ports alone are working. That’s why you notice congestion on the road.
If the Warri, Sapele, Koko, Calabar, and Port Harcourt ports are fully working, most of the trailers in Apapa would have been diverted to those areas, and then some of the ships will be using the barges to convey goods from one place to another.
The tug boats will also be getting jobs to carry loads to one ship or another. People that own tug boats, barges, supply tankers, etc will be having regular jobs. And over 5,000 seafarers will be having regular jobs.
But right now, they don’t have jobs because seaports and jetties in the South South and South East are not operational like before.
Seaports in South South are navigable
The seaports in the South South are navigable. We have NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) Port Harcourt, and NPA Calabar – very modern seaports built by the federal government.
Big ships used to go to those ports to discharge containers, oil, bulk vessels, etc. But the ships stopped going there during the Niger Delta crisis when militants started kidnapping people in those areas.
Because of that, ships were afraid to go there and discharge.
When the Jonathan administration took over, we expected that the government would have settled with all those militants so that ships could resume navigating the waters.
However, the government failed to convince foreign ships to go there and discharge as they used to.
Before now, a giant vessel called Bacco Liner used to go to Port Harcourt and Calabar to discharge goods and containers. Even the Roro vessels were all going there to discharge.
But today, no ship is going there except Shell and Chevron vessels, and other small supply vessels servicing oil companies. Every activity is concentrated on Lagos.
However, the government can revive activities in those ports by talking to importers and foreign vessels, particularly those that bring in goods denominated for discharge in those areas.
Goods going to Aba, Port Harcourt or Onitsha, for instance, should be shipped straight to Port Harcourt or closer ports. This will also reduce the traffic burden on all Nigerian roads.
How functional refineries can impact maritime sector
If the refineries commence full operation, definitely companies will hire our boats to convey petroleum products from Warri or Port Harcourt to Lagos.
In some rigs or oil platforms where they are doing exploration, we’re sure they will hire these vessels and equipment and we will get jobs.
Why we do not have jobs for now is that chartered foreign vessels transport petroleum products straight to Ibru Jetty or PW Jetty, or any of the jetties where they discharge directly.
So they do not engage the services of Nigerian seamen or their vessels in the process.
In 1983, 1985, 1986 up to 1990 and 1995, there were these vessels, MT Tuma and MT Oloibiri. Then the refineries were functional.
NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) vessels would go to Warri and Port Harcourt, load oil and come and discharge to those vessels in Lagos.
Then independent marketers would hire small vessels like our own to go to those ships and collect the products they bought.
Some of them would buy 2,000 tonnes, some 5,000 tonnes. So marketers would hire Nigerian vessels which would go to MT Tuma or MT Oloibiri and load their products to discharge at the harbour.
During that time, fishing trawlers were also operating efficiently because the price of fuel was cheap. But these days, the price of fuel is quite high. If they go fishing, the money they make goes into fueling and other operational costs.
So fishing trawlers are no more operating. Many of them have closed down, and fishing business has died in the country.
You can see how the failure of refineries, high cost of fuel and non-functional seaports have also affected fishery business and every other maritime business.
Impact on labour
Before now, Akoto Ventures used to have over 150 staffers in permanent employment, and hundreds of contract staff. Today, we are not more than 15.
All our equipment are grounded. Jobs are not forthcoming, and the company can hardly pay the staff or pick the bills for operational costs. For the whole of this year, we haven’t done any job. That is how bad the situation has got.
We are just struggling to hold on believing that the new government will turn things around. We believe the country will not continue to import petroleum products.
Venturing into hospitality abroad
Hospitality business is what we are trying to go into. I am selling some of our vessels to acquire a hotel in Ghana, which we are currently working on.
I decided to set up the hospitality business in Ghana due to electricity challenges in Nigeria. Most hotels in Nigeria are struggling to break even due to high operational costs largely associated with owning power generation.
Before I began the foray into Ghana, I had observed about two years ago that there is stable electricity in that country. I reasoned that if I set up a hotel and I am not buying diesel to power generators, I will be able to make some profit despite everything else.
That was how I decided to sell some of our vessels which were almost rotting away due to inactivity, and used the money to buy a small hotel outfit so that we could start on a small scale pending when maritime business picks up again.
But up till now, we have not finished the project because of financial constraints.
As to whether we are going to explore hospitality business in Nigeria; in due course, yes, we will. Once we take off operations in Ghana, and we are able to make good returns, we will not hesitate to establish in Nigeria if electricity supply improves. Nigeria is going to be the headquarters of everything we do as a company.
We have offices in Congo and Ghana.
In Ghana, shipping is not booming. But we consider the fact that there is stable electricity which is quite good for hospitality business.
How I started
I graduated from the College of Oceanography, Victoria Island, Lagos, and worked with some fishing companies where I started as a cook. As a cook on board, I was assisting my captain and at the same time assisting the chief engineer.
Later, I became an oiler and subsequently graduated into a chief engineer. As a chief engineer, I could man a fishing trawler and fish for 45 days in the ocean and return without problem.
From there I became a third officer and later chief officer and finally became a captain.