Dakuku Unveil Plans to Restructure NIMASA

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, within nine years of its existence, has undergone changes not only in its leadership, but in management and staff redeployment, transfers and trials. So much so that it is a surprise to maritime stakeholders that the present Director General, Dr. Dakuku

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, addressing stakeholders at the forum.

Peterside, has not made statements concerning changes in management nor staff redeployment since assumption of duty.

Change has come. The expected changes in management of NIMASA  to reposition the Agency in order to deliver better maritime administration duties and ensure greater efficiency in its operations both offshores and ashore have been unveiled.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, Dakuku disclosed that a four year development plan has been worked out and its implementation will commence shortly.

According to him, the Agency will be restructured on the templates of organizational culture, structure and performance. In his words

“performance not in terms of dollars, pounds, euros, yuan nor naira but performance in terms of how many vessels are working, where and on what. We are also concerned about the issue of capacity to deliver on our core functions and the capacity of Nigerians to meet the demands and challenges of maritime operations locally and internationally”.

The NIMASA boss also disclosed that the restructuring is meant to effect a growth/development plan which will be led and driven by stakeholders whose expectations remain unmet by the Agency.

Dakuku stated that the stakeholders meeting was convened to get ideas and inputs from maritime stakeholders on their expectations from NIMASA.

The expectations were reeled out by maritime professionals, investors, bankers, lawyers and trainers present at the meeting in torrents:

Capacity building:

The Nigerian Seafarers’ Development Programme, NSDP, stakeholder agreed, was a good programme but academics without practicals does not quality a cadet as a professional. The need to have ships on which seafarers could get sea time was again unequivocally re-emphasized.

Cabotage

Stakeholders agreed that Cabotage is a good initiative but implementation persist as a major challenge. The granting of waivers without giving Nigerian ship owners the right of first refusal was denounced. For instance, in Singapore, waiver is only granted after it has been proven that Singaporeans lack the capacity to deliver immediately. The time frame for which such waiver is given is dependent on how long it will take any Singaporeans to meet such need.

President of the Nigerian Ship Owners Association, NISA, Engr. Greg Ogbeifu disclosed that there are 1, 227 ships operating on Nigerian waters daily. He lamented that with Forex crunch, maintaining these ships abroad is a major challenge. “There is urgent need to look at the need to have functional ship building/repair yards in Nigeria to save funds and create employment for Nigerians”, Ogbeifu stated.

CVFF

The management/disbursement or otherwise of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund, CVFF, was frowned at. Stakeholders observed that it is very difficult to compete with ship owners who get loans at 3%-5%, Nigerian banks, it was revealed, will not give any maritime operator loan at less than 15%-20%. The need to establish a maritime development bank was thus proposed.

Safety and Security/ISPS Code

Following presentation by NIMASA on how the Agency plans to tackle piracy and other criminal acts on Nigerian waters by renewal of its MOUs with the Nigerian military, stakeholders asked the Agency to double its efforts at implementation of the International Ships and Ports Security Code, ISPS. The need to check operations at private jetties and category of persons allowed in and out of such facilities was also stressed.

Terminal Operators/Labour

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, informed NIMASA that terminal operators were ignoring existing labour laws/regulations. The Union urged NIMASA to check the register opened for dock workers and ascertain the category of persons engaged by terminal operators through the back. The condition of service offered by terminal operators was also described as far below standards adopted by the International Labour Organization, ILO which Nigeria is signatory to.

Stakeholders were asked to articulate their views/suggestions on how to transform the industry in writing to guide NIMASA as the agency begins implementation of its restructuring programme.