Offers Enabling Legislations and Instruments that Empowers

2nd from right is Mrs. Patience Diaba member of the GMA flanked by NIMASA Management Team

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has open heartedly embraced the Ghana Maritime Authority for tutorials on step by step basics of successful implementation of Cabotage regime.

Welcoming a Ghanaian delegation led by Head, Legal Services of the GMA, Mrs. Patience Diaba, which came to Nigeria to understudy the Nigeria Model of Cabotage implementation, the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Service, ML&CS, Engr. Victor Ochei said “Our achievements, processes, knowledge acquired and experience are what we shall be sharing with you within this short period of time. Luckily you will be gaining these set of skills without the inclusion of the pitfalls we had to learn from to attain our current level”.

“In the course of this under-study, we chronologically intend to take you on a historical sojourn or overview, enlighten you on our famous ‘4 Pillars of Cabotage; we shall put you through the enabling legislations and instruments that empowers us to operate as well as our enforcement procedures”

Speaking further, the Nigerian Cabotage Boss told the Ghanaian team that collaboration was and remains a key element in achieving a steady Cabotage regime in Nigeria.

According to Engr. Ochei “As an Agency of the Government we had to build collaborations with relevant public and private Agencies to ensure effectiveness in achieving our mandates. One of the critical agencies NIMASA is collaborating with in the capacity-building is the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

Explaining how Nigeria tackled the challenge of Cabotage funding and other financial constraints, Engr Ochei explained  “One of the critical aspects of our Cabotage administration is our desire to build indigenous capacity through robust maritime asset financing this specifically gave rise to the ‘Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund’ CVFF”.

“The CVFF is a method we have employed to ensure that indigenous persons or companies are able to properly compete and eventually overtake foreign participation in our maritime domestic trade through the process of raising low interest loans for vessel acquisition and other maritime asset development”.

“I will not want to bore you too much on how this special Fund is realized because I know you would be taken through the sources of the Fund in the course of your under study of our Cabotage methodology”.

The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, (OFR) in his keynote address to his Ghanaian counterparts express delight on the visit by the GMA.

His words “Your visit to understudy us could not have come at a better time as the President of Ghana, Nana Akuffo-Ado recently convened an extraordinary session of the heads of state and government of the Gulf of Guinea commission in Accra where President Muhammadu Buhari gave a Keynote Address on “strategies for strengthening peace and security in the fight against maritime-related crimes in the region”. This simply shows how important the two nations take maritime as a catalyst to the development of our economies”.

On how far and how well Nigeria has fared in implementing Cabotage in Nigeria, the NIMASA Boss said “It will interest you to know that there has been an increase in the number of local participation in our maritime domain since the advent of the Cabotage Act as about 68 per cent of vessels trading within the country’s maritime space are Nigerian-flagged”. This indicates that the NIMASA is doing a lot in ensuring that proper attention is paid to the essence of the Cabotage mandate”.

The Ghanaian delegation is in Nigeria to under study how Nigeria has attained an enviable Cabotage regime as Ghana struggles with issues and challenges to enable the GMA navigate easily the learning curves and make progress faster.

Assuring the Ghana Maritime Authority, GMA, of full support and elaborate tutorial on Cabotage the management team of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA assured “We charge you to make use of this opportunity which we never had and ensure to freely profit from our experience even as you enjoy our country and the Nigerian Jollof rice”.