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Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, has declared the agency’s readiness and commitment to continuously collaborate with all stakeholders.
This, he said, is to ensure that Nigeria attains the status of not only the hub of maritime activities in the West and Central Africa region but also a major maritime player globally.
Jamoh, who restated this in Lagos during an interactive session with media stakeholders, noted the steady progress being made in maritime security safety and increasing capacity for the industry.
He said statistics released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) showed that piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea dropped from 81 in 2020 to 34 in 2021 representing a 58.02 per cent decline, stressing that the drop was not by accident, but a product of conscious collaborative efforts with the Nigerian Navy and other stakeholders in the region.
He also noted that the IMB report also shows a 62 per cent decrease in the number of crew kidnapping incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, which reduced from 150 in 2020 to 57 in 2021.
Commenting on statutory levies stakeholders pay to the Federal Government through the Agency, Jamoh reaffirmed that NIMASA’s levies are in accordance with the provisions of the Act, which set up the Agency.
“The NIMASA Act 2007 which is our guiding principle only states that our charges must be a component of the gross freight and must be paid by shipowners not in terms of product to marketers or any other entity,” the DG said.
Speaking further, the NIMASA boss said all the payments either in foreign currency or the Naira, were paid into Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA), adding that in the long run, it was for the benefit of all Nigerians that the country no longer loses any revenue through underpayment in statutory charges or levies.
He described the recent explosion, which occurred on the Trinity Spirit Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), as unfortunate, adding that the NIMASA team was working with other relevant government agencies to establish the immediate and remote causes of the incident.
He noted that the issue of environmental pollution was highlighted in the preliminary report and that the Agency would work with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) through the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) funds to compensate for all the losses within and around the facility.
He said the agency will inform members of the public of the details of the incident as the development unfolds.
The DG then used the opportunity to reel out some of the achievements of the Agency in the year 2021 including improved contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government, from N31 billion in 2020 to about N37 billion in 2021, an increase of 43.6 per cent in condition survey for Flag Registration by the Agency in 2021 as against 2020 performance.
The process also included the reactivation of the online certificate verification platform to reduce falsification of Nigerian Seafarers Certificate and enhance the employment of Nigerian Seafarers; improved strategic collaboration with the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army and the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Jamoh pointed out that the move has helped to reduce piracy attacks off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, as there was no single attack on Nigerian waters in the third quarter of 2021, as reported by the International Maritime Bureau.
