The Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh has enumerated the strides he has made since he took over the mantle of leadership in the Federal Ministry of Transportation parasatal.
The achievements of the agency in the year 2021 include improved contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government from N31 billion in 2020 to about N37 billion in year 2021; increase of 43.6 percent in condition survey for Flag Registration as against the performance in year 2020; reactivation of the online certificate verification platform to reduce falsification of Nigerian Seafarers Certificate and enhance the employment of Nigerian Seafarers.
Others are improved strategic collaboration with the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army and the office of the National Security Adviser a move Jamoh noted has helped to reduce piracy attacks off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, as there were no single attack on Nigerian waters in the 3rd quarter of 2021 as reported by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
He maintained that the statistics released by the IMB showing piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea dropping from 81 in year 2020 to 34 in 2021 representing 58.02 percent was not by accident but a product of conscious collaborative efforts by the agency, the Nigerian Navy and other stakeholders.
He also noted that the IMB report also shows a 62 percent decrease in the number of crew kidnapping incidents in the Gulf of Guinea which reduced from 150 in 2020 to 57 in 2021.
NIMASA Assistant Director, Public Relations, Mr. Edward Osagie in a statement made available to Maritime Bits quoted Jamoh saying this during an interactive session with media stakeholders in Lagos recently.
He noted what he called “the steady progress” in terms of maritime security safety and growing capacity for the industry.
According to the NIMASA helmsman, the agency is committed to continuously collaborate with all stakeholders 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.
Commenting on statutory levies stakeholders pay the Federal Government through the agency, Jamoh reaffirmed that NIMASA levies are in accordance with the provisions of the Act establishing it.
His words: “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 ship owners not in terms of product to marketers or any other entity”.
According to him, all the payments either in foreign currency or Naira are made into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Federal Government adding that in the long run, it was for the benefit of all Nigerians that the country does not further lose any source of her revenue through underpayment in statutory charges or levies.
On the recent explosion which occurred on Trinity Spirit Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), Jamoh described the incident as unfortunate.
He said the NIMASA team is working with other relevant organs of government to establish the immediate and remote causes of the fire explosion.
He noted that the issue of environmental pollution was highlighted in the preliminary report and the agency will work with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) through the use of the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) funds for compensation of all the losses within and around the facility.
“The public will be informed of every detail concerning the incident as the situation unfolds”, he added.
