Editorial
The recent appreciation night of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for its staff of up to 30 years of service provides an opportunity to look up a Federal Government parastatal that has become a source of revenue and cheer in a nation where such bodies serve as wastepipes.
NIMASA, for quite some time, was a source of controversy and despair because it became a cynosure of corruption charges and poor management, and it seemed irredeemable as a fat cow making itself look sick.
In the past few years, it has attained some milestones. It is number one in West and Central Africa in port state control, which is significant in these days of giddy movement of goods.
It has placed 7,000 seafarers on board cabotage vessels in one year, unparalleled in history. NIMASA has also placed 400 National Seafarers Development Programme cadets for sea time, also a first in history. It has set the pace in managing marine litter as well as reaching an 0.5 sulfur 2020 cap.
NIMASA has issued and renewed over 3,500 Certificates of Competences within one year, a feat that is also unprecedented. In this context, its tonnage has risen to second in the whole of Africa. Part of this is its ability to receive and register specialised vessels.
Under its present leadership, it has cut down the time for the issuance of sailing clearance from seven days to a quick 25 hours, with all its implications for enhancing the turn-around time for vessels.
All of these would not have worked smoothly with a technological vision. Now, the agency has digitized a great deal of its operation, making it a 21st century entity.
With technological power, it has the enhanced system with a capacity to track dangerous goods as well for standard operating procedures (SOP).
NIMASA has set a record in detaining ships, reducing it to minimum. It has introduced not only an annual maritime forecast, but also what is called a final bill system.
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The final bill system avoids the dwell time taking many weeks, even months. It allows ships to reconcile accounts between countries where the vessels are coming from and where they have berthed.
In the past, it could lead to opacity in accountability and wasted man hours of drudgery of back and forth between both countries and their agents. This is also how the policy of transparency is helped by technology and vice versa.
One of the major drags of high sea commerce is piracy, and it is not just a matter of training and deploying cadets but instituting a strategy for tackling criminality.
Its Deep Blue Project enhances surveillance, patrol and anticipation of high sea infractions. It therefore assures commerce in peace.
Activities on the high seas are regulated by international protocols anchored by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), and it is called the Cabotage.
It is encouraging that the International maritime Organisation (IMO) has recognised some of these positive developments in NIMASA, and it was much acknowledged when Nigeria hosted the body here a few years ago.
Every year since its leadership fell in the Hands of Dakuku Peterside, he has received praise from President Muhammadu Buhari for its leap in revenue it has contributed to the national coffers, while in the past it had been stingy in revenue yields.
Just like his counterpart in the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), NIMASA has added billions of Naira. From the reports of seafarers and cadet recruits it shows that NIMASA has also attacked the unemployment issue.
Indeed, it has promoted more than 1,000 staff in the past three years. Other agencies can learn from its efficiencies.
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