Section 7: Conditions for granting of national carrier status to shipping companies.

The Authority may grant national carrier status to a shipping company if-(a) Nigerian individuals or enterprises fully owned by Nigerian individuals, have at least sixty per cent of its equity shares and the company is registered in Nigeria;
(b) the vessel owned by the company operates on the deep sea and not on the Nigerian coastal or inland waterways;
(c) the head office of the company is located in Nigeria and its management and control is directed from its Nigerian head office;
(d) the company owns at least one ocean-going vessel, of not less than 5,000 net registered tonnage;
(e) the terms and conditions of the employment of seafarers engaged by the company, are in conformity with Nigerian laws and accepted international rules and standards;
(f)
the vessels of the company are registered in the Nigerian Register of Ships and the vessels satisfy all conditions stipulated in the Merchant Shipping Act; and (Cap. M11)
(g) one hundred per cent of the crew and at least seventy-five per cent of the shipboard officers, including the captain and the chief officer and wherever possible chief engineers, are Nigerians.