The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) have agreed to join forces in the implementation of the provisions in the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM).
To this end, the two key parasatals in the Federal Ministry of Transportation have resolved to implement joint measures to minimise what they called “delay and corrupt practices” at the nation’s seaports.
They also agreed to harmonise the implementation of port and flag state administration to minimise human direct contact onboard vessels, calling at the port.
The management of NIMASA and NSC stated this when the Executive Secretary of NSC, Mr. Hassan Bello paid a working visit to the NIMASA corporate headquarters, Apapa, Lagos.
The government agencies noted that full automation of processes at the nation’s ports would go a long way to curb human interface, delays and corruption at the ports.
NIMASA Head Corporate Communications, Mr. Philip Kyanet in a statement issued in Lagos and made available to Maritime Bits quoted the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh saying that the agency’s operation was close to 85 percent automated.
He added that NIMASA has undertaken an in house harmonisation exercise to reduce human interface and now fully ready for inter-agency harmonisation.
He also commended the management of NSC for its commitment to ensuring the success of the introduction of cargo tracking notes in port operations.
His words: “We thank you for obtaining approval for the cargo tracking note. This will reduce loss of man-hour and assist in exposing non-declaration or under declaration at the nation’s ports, thus improving revenue generation for the federal government”.
Commenting on the Secure Anchorage Area, Jamoh noted that since the deep blue project took over security working closely with the Nigerian Navy, the nation has witnessed a reduction in the number of security breaches at the anchorage.
“We are beginning to record a reduction in attacks in our waters, and we hope to sustain this and later demand a change in status of cost of insurance of vessels visiting Nigerian waters”, he said.
On his part, Bello said that cost of port operations in Nigeria could be reduced by over 35 percent when standard operation procedures contained in the NPPM were fully implemented.
According to the NSC helmsman, our ports are in competition with other ports in the region, so we need to strengthen collaboration on the establishment of indicative freight rates”.
Maritime Bits had reported that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo unveiled the NPPM on December 9, 2020 in Abuja during the 2020 International Anti-Corruption Day.
The NPPM is a collection of processes taken from the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of stakeholders in the port sector and it aims to improve operations, service timelines, efficiency, and accountability at the nation’s seaports situated in Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Onne, and Warri.
