Section 35: National Carrier status to shipping companies

The Minister, on the recommendation of the Agency, may grant national carrier status to a shipping company if-(a) the Nigerian individuals or enterprises fully owned by Nigerian individual own at least sixty per cent of its equity shares, sixty percent in the shares of any vessel owned by the company and the shipping company is registered in Nigeria;
(b) the vessel owned by the company operates on international route, the deep sea and not in 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 company's vessels are registered in the Nigerian Ship Registration Office and the vessels satisfy all conditions stipulated in the Merchant Shipping Act; and
(g) one hundred percent 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.