Harboursandport.com: Lagos --- The
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency,
(NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside has stated that regional cooperation is key to
the safety and security of inbound and outbound goods and services to Africa
through the seas.
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| Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside |
Dr. Peterside disclosed this at
the technical workshop on Prospects, Challenges and Opportunities for Regional
Collaboration at the sidelines of the just concluded Offshore Technology
Conference (OTC) in Houston Texas, in the United States of America, USA.
He also noted that the development
of the maritime sector in the African continent is hinged on regional
cooperation.
The NIMASA boss further assured
the select international stakeholders of a renewed effort to enhance safety and
security in the Gulf of Guinea based on sustainable regional cooperation.
Peterside who was represented by
the Agency’s Executive Director Operations, Engineer Rotimi Fashakin said that
efforts at regional collaboration have led to signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Ghanaian Maritime Administration amongst others. He
added that Africa particularly the Sub-Saharan region of the continent stands
to benefit from regional cooperation as this will enhance participation in
international shipping thus reversing the current trend of the region having
only an insignificant part of international cargo freight.
He noted that the Federal
Government of Nigeria supports regional integration as demonstrated with the
approved Integrated National Security Strategy (INSS) for the Nigerian maritime
sector which is designed to be implemented in collaboration with other countries
in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).
“The oil & Gas industry needs
the maritime sector, particularly shipping, which is international in nature
for it to thrive. The fact that shipping is international in nature makes
collaboration particularly at the regional level inevitable. This will serve as
a catalyst for growth in the industry and we at NIMASA have recognized this
fact, thus our numerous collaborative efforts which have begun to yield fruits”
He said.
The NIMASA DG informed the
stakeholders that NIMASA has established a command and control centre for
enhanced situation awareness, response capability, law enforcement and regional
cooperation amongst others, all geared towards an enhanced water security and
by extension, the entire region.
Dr. Peterside who is the current
Chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA) also
assured the international community that NIMASA will continue to collaborate
with other countries in sub Saharan Africa and beyond in order to realize its
vision of a prosperous maritime sector in Nigeria and the West and Central
African Sub-Region.
While calling for continuous
collaboration amongst partners across continents, the NIMASA DG noted that
improved profiling and information sharing on maritime criminality and
illegality, enhanced maritime domain awareness and surface to air patrol
capabilities, functional legal framework, integration of national inter-agency
efforts, amongst others are factors that can help bring solutions to the issues
related to insecurity in the maritime domain.
On his part, the Chairman of
NIMASA Governing Board, Rtd General Jonathan India Garba noted that regional
collaboration in the maritime sector is an effective measure to grow both human
and infrastructural capacity in the maritime sector, adding that the NIMASA Board
supports the Agency’s executive Management’s efforts at regional integration.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Maikanti Baru,
during his visit to the NIMASA stand at the OTC, commended the Agency’s
Management for her efforts in seeking collaboration to grow the industry in
Nigeria.
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