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Tag: NIMASA

  • ‘Presidency has resolved NIMASA-NLNG row’

    ‘Presidency has resolved NIMASA-NLNG row’

    The Federal Government has resolved the levies dispute between the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, NIMASA’s Director-General Dr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi has said.

    The government has directed the NLNG to pay all outstanding levies to NIMASA with effect from September 2009.

    Akpobolokemi spoke with reporters in Abuja yesterday .

    On May 3, NIMASA stopped all NLNG vessels from operating in Bonny Channel.

    The agency said it blocked access to the channel because statutory obligations to the agency were not met.

    Although the NLNG said NIMASA’s claim was subjudice to a court process, the Presidency later waded in the dispute.

    Akpobolokemi said: “We did not clampdown on NLNG as erroneously portrayed. The reason of resorting to self-help was not the situation at all. The challenge we had was that they did not subject themselves to our laws.

    “The NLNG Act indeed exempted NLNG from paying taxes and levies as an incentive for the investment of NLNG shareholders.

    “But the tax and levies incentives were meant to be for 10 years or when the cumulative average sales price of liquefied natural gas reaches $3 in million metric British Thermal Units (MMBTU) as calculated in the First Schedule to the NLNG Act.

    “As at 2004, the price of gas stood at $9 USD in million metric British Thermal Units (MMBTU). Also, since 2009, the 10-year waiver had expired. So, as at 2004, they had already passed the benchmark.

    “The refusal of the NLNG to pay levies is also making others not to pay. As a regulator, we have to enforce the law.

    “Following the intervention of the government, NIMASA has been asked to give concession to NLNG on levies it had been owing before September 2009.

    “So, from October 2009, we will calculate whatever NLNG was owing NIMASA. We have been given some few days to calculate the amount. The two parties will meet and do the calculation. That is the concession the government said we should give them.”

    On alleged marginalisation of some ethnic groups in NIMASA, Akpobolokemi denied the claim.

    He said: “We have been employing from all parts of the country. We are not abusing the Federal Character Principle, we are doing our best.

    “The industry has changed; young men and women are getting employments by leveraging on the Cabotage Act

    On enforcement of maritime laws, he said: “So many pirates and their sponsors have been arrested.

    “We do not shield any person, it is not a business you shield anyone, it is an open business. Very soon, we will release the list of those violating our laws. There are lots of big vessels in our custody; it is not something to hide.

    “Once we do that, people should not say it is ethnic cleansing or it is about 2015. The management of NIMASA has nothing to do with politics. I am not in PDP or ACN; I have a profession before I came here.

    “Ethnicity or not, if you steal petroleum products or hijack vessels, we will arrest you. What we should leave is legacy that will endure; we need a strong institution which will endure irrespective of who takes over.”

  • Reps to probe NIMASA over N40b vessel fund

    Reps to probe NIMASA over N40b vessel fund

    The House of Representatives is set to probe the handling of the N40billion Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF ) by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Agency ( NIMASA).

    The investigation was prompted by the discovery that the fund has been trapped in some designated banks.

    Following the adoption of the motion raised by Hassan Saleh (PDP, Benue), the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, constituted an ad hoc Committee that would also determine the total amount that had been generated under the fund since inception.

    The Committee that was given four weeks to turn in its report, was also requested to ascertain the banks warehousing the funds and their level of participation in the scheme.

    The fund was established by the Cabotage Act, 2003, to promote the development of indigenous ship acquisition capacity by providing financial assistance to Nigerian operators in domestic coastal shipping.

    Saleh, regretted that rather than stimulate Nigeria’s maritime growth through participation of indigenous ship owners in maritime transport, the fund has remained inaccessible to Nigerian maritime investors.

    Besides, more than N40billion is allegedly trapped in designated commercial banks, a development that has defeated the purpose of establishing the fund, he noted.

    “The actions of the banks and NIMASA have defeated the laudable objectives of the fund. If the maritime sector was fully developed, it had the potentials to generate much revenue as the oil sector.

    “More than 90 per cent of the country’s international trade was being carried out on the sea. Only 20 active Nigerian registered vessels were handling the country’s external trade, while the remaining percentages are owned by foreigners,” he added.

    Kingsley Chinda ( PDP, Rivers ) said the motion has exposed the fact that Nigeria has weak institutions, which are responsible for the problems we have in implementing statutes and policies.

    “But if passed, the maritime sector would be taken over by Nigerians,” he said.

    Friday Itulah ( PDP, Edo ), noted that Nigerians’ participation in the cabotage industry was not satisfactory, adding that there was a need for Nigerians to look inward to develop the economy.

    According to Patrick Ikhari ( PDP, Edo), if the economic sector was well managed, the management of other sectors would not pose any problem.

    Meanwhile, the House of Representatives was divided yesterday over how to protect Nigerians from foreign incursion and takeover of petty and retail trading in the country.

    While some felt that foreigners should be prevented from petty trading and retail business through the instruments of law, others opined that making it a law would be counter-productive as retaliatory action from other countries should be expected.

    The bill for an Act to Amend the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act, sponsored by Saviour Udoh (PDP, Akwa Ibom) generated heated argument on the floor but the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal had to intervene before it scaled second reading.

    The Speaker, after an exhaustive debate prevailed on his colleagues saying Nigerians should rather be given the opportunity to decide what they prefer out of the available.

    Opponents of the bill that included Nnenna Ukeje (PDP, Abia) said cation must be exercised because, Nigerians being migratory in nature that are all over the world should be taken into consideration.

    She said: “The backlash of reciprocity should be considered because we have Nigerians in other countries of the world. Should Nigeria shut her borders against foreign investment, what happens to our unemployed youths that we hope get engaged through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)?”

  • NIMASA gets nod to build shipyard

    • Agency denies allegation of compulsory retirement of workers

     

    The Federal Government has given the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) the green light to establish a shipyard to boost the nation’s capacity building.

    NIMASA’s Director-General Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi, told The Nation that the shipyard would create jobs and arrest capital flight, noting that millions of dollars are lost in procuring vessels outside the country.

    According to him, the development of a shipyard will now enable cadets graduating from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, to have a place for their practice.

    To make the shipyard viable, he said the private sector would be involved in its management.

    “We will not only build ships; there will be a facility for dry docking in the shipyard. We are bringing in the private sector because we want to avoid the pitfall that goes with the government being single-handedly involved in this kind of business.

    “Our belief is that if it is successfully completed and managed, we will not only create employment opportunities, but also arrest capital flight as many vessels calling in Nigerian ports will have a facility for dry docking instead of going elsewhere to do it,” he said.

    NIMASA has denied that it asked some of its workers to proceed on compulsory retirement.

    In a memo signed by its Director of Administration and Personnel Services, Mr Chuks Mgbemena, NIMASA said the scheme was open to workers only on Grade Levels 15 to 17, with less than five years in service prior to attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 years or 35 years in service and eight years for directors.

    The Deputy Director, Public Relations, Hajia Lami Tumaka, said the agency only advised interested workers in the above category to write and seek further clarification from the Administration and Personnel Services Department.

    She said the scheme was not new to the agency as it is part of the agency’s conditions of service.

    The image maker said the scheme was put in place to encourage workers who may be willing to retire early to go into some other ventures not to lose out on their outstanding years of service.

    “In order to encourage early voluntary retirement, staff who have five years or less to retirement by years of age or years of service may be offered lump sum payment. The payment shall be based on Annual Terminal Base Salary for the remaining active years of service and pro rata. All other entitlements shall also apply. The lump sum payment inducement option shall, however, be subject to management discretion to invoke it as and when it deems necessary,” she said.

    She said the scheme is not the right of staff as this scheme could only be applied at the discretion of the Executive Management.

  • NLNG exports delayed over tax dispute

    NLNG exports delayed over tax dispute

    Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports have been delayed after a security agency blocked ships from accessing the Bonny terminal from May 3 to May 5, the state-LNG firm said on Monday.

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) stopped the ships from entering or leaving the 22 million tonnes-a-year terminal because it said the NLNG was not paying its freight levies.

    “Nigeria LNG is a law-abiding corporate citizen and pays all its lawful dues and taxes … NLNG’s position had been that it was exempted from the levies,” Reuters quoted the firm as saying in a statement.

    Access was denied from 1600 GMT on Friday until an unspecified time on Sunday, said NLNG.

    One ship loaded with LNG was prevented from exiting the terminal during the blockade and two ships for loading could not enter, an LNG industry source told Reuters.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation owns 49 percent of Nigeria LNG with Shell holding 25.6 percent, Total 15 percent and Eni 10.4 percent.

    Nigeria ships over 250 cargoes of LNG a year, contributing around seven percent of global supply and accounting for four percent of Gross Domestic Product in Africa’s second largest economy, according to NLNG.

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  • NIMASA plans retirement scheme

    The Management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is planning a Voluntary Lump-Sum Retirement Scheme for staff of the agency on Grade levels 15 to 17 with less than five years in service.

    This was made known to The Nation by Hajia Lami Tumaka, Deputy Director Public Relations.

    In a memo signed by the Director of Administration and Personnel Services, Mr Chuks Mgbemena, addressed to staff of the agency, stated that the scheme is for staff who are in service prior to attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 or 35 years in service and in the case of directors, eight years on their present position.

    Tumaka said interested staff in this category willing to benefit from the scheme were encouraged to apply to the Administration and Personnel Services Department.

    “The Voluntary Lump Sum Retirement Scheme is part of the conditions of service in NIMASA under Chapter 7 Section 7.10 of the agency’s conditions of service handbook. This section stipulates that in order to encourage early voluntary retirement, staff who have five years or less to retirement by years of age or years of service may be offered lump sum payment.

    “The payment shall be based on Annual Terminal Base Salary for the remaining active years of service and prorate. All other entitlements shall also apply. The lump sum payment inducement option shall, however, be subjected to management discretion to apply it as and when it deems necessary,” Tumaka stated.

    This scheme was put in place to encourage staff who may be willing to retire early to go into some other ventures not to lose out entirely on their outstanding years of service. It is a voluntary scheme enshrined in the agency’s conditions of service and only members of staff who are willing to accept it can benefit from the scheme. It is not the right of staff as this scheme can only be invoked by the discretion of the executive management when it deems fit, she added.

  • Blockade: NIMASA adamant, NLNG cries out over economic loss

    …NLNG asks NIMASA to leave court to decide dispute

    The face-off over the blockade of Bonny Channel continued yesterday as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) stopped a ship, NLNG Lagos, laden with gas from sailing from the loading bay.

    Also another ship, NLNG Adamawa ,was unable to come into the buoy.

    But the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) yesterday, in a statement, asked NIMASA to leave the court to decide the dispute on duties between the two agencies.

    It was learnt that NLNG officials are also mounting pressure on government officials to intervene to prevent economic loss to the nation.

    A top official of NIMASA, who spoke in confidence, said: “Our agency is resolute in recovering outstanding statutory levies from the NLNG.

    “We will not bend the rules for any agency. We also have another ship, NLNG Adamawa, which is unable to come into the buoy since the blockade started.

    “We learnt that the NLNG has been mounting serious pressure on senior officials of government to force NIMASA to lift the blockade but this is about asking the company to meet its responsibilities.”

    But, NLNG in a statement through its General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, asked NIMASA to leave the court to decide the dispute on levies between the two government bodies.

    The statement said: “A vessel said to be from NIMASA blocked the Bonny Channel stopping NLNG vessels from either going in or out.

    We understand that NIMASA has resorted to this as self-help to extract levies from the company. NLNG had continuously informed NIMASA that it is exempted by the NLNG ACT, an act of parliament, which has provided waivers from such prescribed levies. Any such payments contrary to the NLNG ACT would therefore be illegal.

    “NIMASA had earlier gone to court to resolve this issue, but later withdrew the case. We believe that under the rule of law the courts are the appropriate interpreters of the law where there is an issue in contention. We believe that NIMASA as part of the Federal government of Nigeria is also a respecter of the rule of law.”

    The statement added that besides the economic loss to the nation as a result of imminent production shutdown that this action might cause, there is the greater potential reputation damage to the country.

  • NIMASA to impose Sea Protection Levy

    NIMASA to impose Sea Protection Levy

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said that every vessel that plied the nation’s waters must pay Sea Protection Levy (SPL).

    Mrs Julian Gunwa, Director, Marine Environment Management Department, said this in a meeting with shipping companies in Lagos.

    She said that NIMASA was empowered to collect the levy.

    “The Federal Government Official Gazette Number 158 Marine Environment Management Regulation 2012 empowers NIMASA to impose levies on all commercially operating vessels of 100 gross tonnage and above,” she said.

    Gunwa was delivering a paper on “Implementation of Marine Environment Management Regulations 52 and 53 on Sea Protection Levy and offshore Waste Reception Facilities”.

    She said any ship that defaulted in the payment of the levies might be detained by NIMASA at any port or jetty until the levy was paid.

    “SPL payable will be recovered in court by bringing legal action against the ship and its owner,” she said.

    Gunwa said that NIMASA already had a vessel called ‘Jumbo Explorer’ that provided a framework on waste generated from ships and offshore installation.

    Gunwa said that all offshore installations would pay the offshore waste reception facility charges per annum ranging from one dollar to 1.50 dollars.

    “Any violation committed to the non compliance of the offshore waste shall attract a fine of N10 million for individuals and N20 million for corporate bodies,” she said.

    She urged stakeholders to work together towards achieving a maritime environment management system in line with best international practises.

    Mr Emeka Akabogua, the legal adviser to NIMASA, said that the legal framework and regulations were created to ensure enforcement of the legislation.

    “The legislation are international conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory and is only just trying to implement,” he said.

  • NIMASA to release cabotage fund, says DG

    NIMASA to release cabotage fund, says DG

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), will soon release the amount that has accrued to the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF). the Director-General, Ziakede Akpobolokemi, has said.

    He said the agency would commence the disbursement of the fund to qualified Nigerian ship owners once the processes involved are concluded.

    Akpobolokemi told reporters in Lagos that the release of the figures will put to rest speculations on the exact amount that has accrued to the fund.

    He denied insinuations in certain quarters that invested interest within and outside the corridors of power who want to corner the funds for other uses instead of vessel acquisition and repairs, was part of the reasons why CVFF has not been disbursed over the years.

    He said the agency which remains Nigeria’s apex maritime regulatory authority and recognised by the global maritime watchdog, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), will not only make the exact amount public, but will also ensure it is disbursed to qualified beneficiaries as soon as possible.

    The NIMASA helmsman, said he is working at getting the actual figures before making it public.

    “Well, I will need to get the records to give you the exact figure. So I may need to go and get information from the department responsible for it. Getting the exact amount is important because the figures keep on changing by the day. If I give you any figure now, by the time I get back to Finance Department there may be some variation because from the report they have given from time to time, the figures keep changing.

    “As the boss of the agency when I make any declaration, or say anything that has to do with money, it should be categorical and specific to the last kobo. It should not be figures based on guess work or imaginations,” he added.

    He NIMASA will fulfil its mandate by focusing on its core functions for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians, adding that the agency will not relent in its drive to maximise the huge potentials in the maritime sector of the economy and make Nigeria a force to be reckoned in the comity of maritime nations.

    CVFF was established under the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act, 2003. It is derived from the two per cent deduction from all contracts awarded under the Cabotage regime. It was designed to empower Nigerian ship owners to acquire adequate tonnage.

    It is meant to empower maritime operators to participate in coastal and inland trade currently dominated by foreign ship owners.

  • NIMASA chief deplores procurement law

    The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, has described the procurement law as outdated and inimical to the agency capacity building programme.

    He told The Nation that the bureaucracy associated with implementing the law, makes it antithetical to the agency’s programmes. Maritime administration, he said, is a security platform that requires urgent attention to meet domestic and international obligations within a limited time.

    The agency, he said, was canvassing the establishment of a maritime university, in addition to putting more resources into the maritime academy to bridge the human capacity gap in the sector, hoping that the procurement law would not stall the programme.

    He said the Act that established NIMASA stipulates that the agency must give five per cent of its statutory three per cent levy to the academy, adding that NIMASA received an approved budget of N2 billion intervention fund for Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron in Akwa Ibom State to boost human capacity development.

    The cash, he said, could only be released to them after passing through the bureaucracy attached to the law.

    Despite the bureaucratic nature of the law under which they are carrying out their core responsibilities, he said the agency would continue to boost training to empower people in their businesses; create employment opportunities for Nigerians in the sector and train young men and women in some maritime fields so that the human capacity gap could be closed in a few years.

    Akpobolokemi said NIMASA would send another 800 youths abroad to study Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering and Nautical Sciences so that the problem of human capacity, which led to the liquidation of the Nigeria National Shipping Line, could be resolved.

    On the procurement law, he said: “Our procurement laws, to be honest, are very obsolete. They are not in alignment with current realities. The law alone is enough to make budget performance very poor. In maritime administration for instance, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) does not want to listen to complaints about our local law, because there are international parameters they would want to apply in judging all of us carrying out the same responsibilities across the globe.

    “Nobody cares about the local circumstances you are facing. For instance, if they expect you to pay their dues today and you did not pay because you are following one endless process, that is your own personal business; it has nothing to do with them.

    “Also, if you are supposed to police your territorial waters for peace and stability and because of procurement bureaucracy, bureaucracy of the civil service and the rest of them, you cannot meet up, it is your own personal problem, nobody takes it as an excuse. So, maritime administration is more or less a security organisation, and once we accord it that status, a lot of things can be expedited for the good of the agency and the country,” he said.

    He said one of the major problems confronting NIMASA is the delay in carrying out their core responsibility of securing the waterways and capacity building. In everything they do, he added, time is very essential.

    On oil theft, the NIMASA boss said the agency is making progress based on its collaboration with other security agencies to secure the waters. Some vessels and equipment would be deployed to secure the nation’s maritime domain soon, he said.

    Because of past mistakes, he said the agency is taking its time to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) so that the money will not go into wrong hands.

    He said as part of their capacity building efforts to support indigenous operators, the first batch of beneficiaries would emerge soon.

    “We have been to the ministry and we are at the final stage for the beneficiaries to get the fund to develop them. I know that once we are able to get this first set through, the coming sets will not be problematic or challenging,” Akpobolokemi said.

  • NIMASA warns against employment scam

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has raised an alarm over a web-based syndicate that is using its name to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians by inviting employment applications from the public to fill vacancies in the agency.

    The Deputy Director, Public Affairs of ths agency, Hajia Lami Tumaka, said the agency was not happy over the development and dissociates itself from the unauthorised syndicate and Internet-related activities of the group, including the payment for employment forms and processing fees.

    She said the agency’s recruitment exercises are always advertised in the Nigerian dailies, the agency’s newsletter and website.

    “Any person or group of persons patronising this unauthorised syndicate do so at his or her own risk as the agency has not commissioned any person or group of persons to conduct recruitment exercise on its behalf at this time,” she said.

    She warned members of the public from falling prey as she said there is no organisation or agency under the Federal Ministry of Transport known as The Nigerian Maritime Security Agency.

    She said her office is open to people to ask question on issues relating to the agency and urged them to always make use of the opportunity.