On May 10, last year, President Muhammadu Buhari began to reform the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) with the appointment of Dr. Dakuku Peterside as director-general. Associate Editor OLUKOREDE YISHAU examines how far the agency has gone with the president’s directive.
It used to be a place to go for free cash. Scary revelations in court rooms have shown how some people got money for work either not done or done half way. Witnesses’ accounts show inflation of contracts and all kinds of malfeasances and public funds ended up being used for personal needs and greed. That was the profile of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) inherited by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The president, who all through his campaigns showed his disdain for corruption, was scandalised by revelations from the agency. He gave Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi a ‘marching order’ to end the malfeasances in NIMASA. The first step was the appointment of a director-general and a board to implement the president’s vision.
The mantle to change the NIMASA narrative fell on an ex-council chair, one-time Works commissioner and former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Dr. Dakuku Peterside. He was appointed the director-general on March 10.
One of the first challenged that confronted Peterside was an organisation with resourceful but unmotivated members of staff. To address this, the agency introduced a professional and leadership series to grow staff capacity. Promotion to director cadre, which had not been done for over a decade, was carried out. Over 300 employees benefited from the exercise.
The management came up with the Medium-Term Strategic Growth Plan covering three years. The plan has reform, restructure and repositioning as its core mission at the agency for sustainable growth and development of the maritime industry.
The pillars on which the strategy was built are: survey, inspection and certification transformation programme; environment, security and search and rescue transformation programme; as well as capacity building and promotional initiatives.
Other pillars are: Digital transformation strategy and structural and cultural reforms. The digital transformation strategy aimed at removing human interface with stakeholders and hastening of processes will see clients being able to register their vessels and do other transactions with NIMASA with a click of a button on their lap top.
“In information driven age that we live in, access to information definitely enhance operations of any maritime Administration. Within six months in office, the Peterside-led management has upgraded Nigeria’s subscription of the Lloyds list intelligence to a full bouquet which is beyond the previous capacity of the sea searcher and this now guarantee unfettered access to current data in the maritime industry. This has improved on the volume and value of data available to Nigerian maritime stakeholders,” the agency explained.
The management also realised that there must be devolution of powers to its zonal offices. Until that was done, most operations at the agency were centralised. Matters, such as sailing certificates and payment of bills by stakeholders were coordinated from the Lagos head office. This, no doubt, was cumbersome and must have led to loss of valuable business time and engendered less productivity.
The agency’s board recently approved the construction of new offices for the Eastern Zone in Port Harcourt and the central zone in Warri. This will make stakeholders able to begin and conclude transactions at the zonal level.
Though, the process of devolution of powers has not been concluded, it has seen most zones now headed by substantive directors. This, a source said, is to ensure that more responsibilities are carried out in the zones.
“This will also reduce time to do business with the agency, thus improving efficiency. In this era of online communication, a semi-autonomous zonal structure will surely enhance the operation of the agency,” said the source.
In January last year, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) came up with the IMO member state Audit Scheme (IMSAS). This is a scheme developed by the IMO to assess the extent to which a member state complies with its obligations. Peterside saw the benefits in adhering to this scheme and less than three months after he came into office, he enlisted NIMASA. When the audit was carried out, Nigeria was rated highly.
The manner the agency was run before the advent of the Buhari-administration also saw it losing face at the international maritime scene. For over half a decade, the country was not on the IMO Council. This saw it being relegated in international maritime politics. IMO is the United Nations (UN) specialised agency, responsible for the safety and security of shipping and prevention of marine pollution by ships. In a bid to end this, the heads of African Maritime Administration have agreed to converge in Abuja on April 22 for the Third Association of African Maritime Administration Conference.
At the event, President Buhari will unveil the new NIMASA brand, aimed at aligning it with other foremost maritime agencies in the world.
Aside of the immediate benefits of having maritime stakeholders in Nigeria, the country’s chances of returning to Council at IMO at the Category C level will be enhanced. The Presidency has approved that NIMASA should seek election into the category C of the IMO Council.
The IMO Council comprises 40 countries which are elected in three categories – A, B and C. Category A consists of 10 countries with the largest interest in providing international shipping services, such as China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
In Category B are 10 countries with the largest interest in international seaborne trade. They are: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden and Category C is made up of 20 countries “with special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world”. In this Category are: Nigeria, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt and Indonesia. Also in this category are Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.
The agency’s bid to improve its international rating got a boost when the United States Coast Guard (USCG) visited the country to ascertain the level of security at the ports. NIMASA has been the Designated Authority (DA) for the implementation of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in Nigeria since May 2013.
The ISPS Code is an amendment to the Safety of Life and Sea (SOLAS) Convention (1974/1988) on minimum security arrangements for ships, ports and government agencies. This code, which came to life in 2004, prescribes responsibilities to governments, shipping companies, shipboard personnel and personnel to detect security threats and take preventative measures.
Peterside, who described the USCG as the most valued partner in ensuring that the ports are safe for business, added that Nigeria places high premium on security issues, adding that the agency was leaving no stone unturned to achieve 100 per cent implementation of the ISPS Code in Nigeria.
He said: “There is absolutely no doubt that we are determined to get it right; we only need support, assistance and all the encouragement we can get. We are determined to work with the USCG to get it right in order to ensure our ports are safe. Let me also reiterate that as a country, we appreciate the importance of getting security right at our ports, jetties and terminals and that we are committed to it.”
The delegation, which was led by Commander Thomas Foster, hailed NIMASA for its strides in ensuring safety at the ports. Foster expressed satisfaction with the infrastructural development on ISPS Code implementation in the ports.
“It appears that the energy that NIMASA has at the ports is very tremendous, as seen in all the ports visited in Lagos. The level of compliance has tremendously improved compared to our last visit. I therefore assure NIMASA that we will continue to work closely to achieve a safer ports, jetties and terminals in Nigeria”, Peterside said.
Instructively, the Cabotage Law implementation has been given a breath of fresh air in the last one year. The Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF). CVFF came into being with the promulgation of the Coastal and Inland Shipping Cabotage Act 2003. The fund was meant to help indigenous ship owners get capital to acquire vessels.
Under Peterside, abuse of waivers is being checked. He admitted that a roadmap was being worked out to realise the full potential of the CVFF.
“We have not realised the full potential of the Cabotage Act but we have moved a step ahead. Just to be sure that we are committed to the full implementation of the Cabotage Act, issues relating to waiver abuse are currently being dealt with accordingly,’’ he said.
He added that the CVFF would only be disbursed to people that would put it into the use for which it is intended. He said applicants must have the requisite criteria as beneficiaries.
“We will rigorously screen the applicants of the CVFF in order to ensure that the funds are disbursed to people who would use it for the purposes the funds are meant for,’’ he said.
A few days ago, the agency, through its Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), graduated 130 cadets from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in Alexandria, Egypt. This feat increased the pool of seafarers in the sector to 1,045. This represents 42 per cent of the over 2,500 NIMASA-sponsored beneficiaries.
Peterside noted that NIMASA sponsored over 2,500 aspiring cadets to the best maritime institutions around the world, including Egypt, Romania, The Philippines, United Kingdom as well as India.
He said 226 graduated from the Arab Academy in Egypt, 76 from South Tyneside, Newcastle in England and 743 from partner universities in The Philippines.
The NIMASA chief, who was represented at the event by the agency’s Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Mr. Gambo Ahmed, said the graduands were trained in various maritime related disciplines, such as marine transport and logistics and nautical engineering.
He added that NIMASA was exploring ways of enriching the NSDP for the impact to be felt globally, saying Nigeria would soon start exporting seafarers and thus reduce unemployment and attract foreign exchange.
Analysts believe the agency has not done badly in the last one year but will certainly keep a tab in the next one year and more to see how it will fare in implementing key policies, such as ISPO Code, CVFF and many others.
