…As Dakuku Extols the Role of Ship Owners to Maritime Sector
By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Nigerian Ship owners Association (NISA) has commended the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on the efforts of the agency towards the full realization of implementation of the Cabage regime.
NISA made the commendation when its delegation led by the Lagos State Cordinator, Captain Taiwo Akinpelumi visited the agency.
This was disclosed on Sunday in a statement signed by Head, Corporate Communications, NIMASA, Isichei Osamgbi made available to Sundiata Post.
According to Taiwo, NISA as a body shares in the vision of NIMASA to reposition the maritime sector for greater efficiency and productivity, hence the call for continuous partnership so that they as professionals, can bring to the table their professional expertise in assisting NIMASA realize its full mandate.
“Ship owners are the essence of NIMASA, without ship owners there will be no NIMASA and without NIMASA, there will be no ship owners. So we have a reason to interact even a lot more than we are doing and that is why we are here”, Captain Taiwo stated.
Taiwo who stated that the body will always work together with the Agency, added that “NIMASA is there for us and we are there for NIMASA. We are the two wings of the bird because no bird can fly with only one wing”.
In his remarks, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside extolled the role of ship owners to the maritime sector, describing them as key players in the sustenance and survival of the Nigerian maritime sector.
He further described the NISA delegation as a set of knowledgeable experts whose wealth of experience will be needed in helping the Agency realize its mandates as regards Cabotage implementation as enshrined in the NIMASA Act.
The NIMASA DG therefore assured of the Agency’s support to the association and continued engagement in fruitful collaborative meetings, geared towards realizing a virile maritime industry.
Dakuku also assured the body that aside from Cabotage, the Agency will look at areas of having exclusivity for Nigerian ship owners such as lighterage and that the Agency is poised to put mechanisms in place to ensure that it works.
According to him, “We will look at the MoU we had with NISA many years ago and review it and look at the possibility of revisiting it. We are pushing it back to you as a task and we believe that you will come with very useful suggestions on the way forward”.
Other issues addressed include multiple charges in the industry among other salient matters which both parties have agreed to work on.
The statement recalled that the Agency recently through the New NIMASA Cabotage Compliance Strategy (NCCS) meant to encourage indigenous participation, suspended waiver on applications on vessel manning for prescribed categories of officers in vessels engaged in coastal trade.