…Warn of possible foreign domination
Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA has said Nigeria barge operators are operating barges that are not classed, warning of a possible domination of the business by foreign shipping lines who are investing in the acquisition of foreign classed barges.
A certified classed barge must have a DP class 1, 2, or 3 notation with a certificate issued by a classification society and is not one simply fitted with a DP capability while an unclassed barge means one with a DP capability but not classified or certificated by a classification society.
Head Maritime Safety, Engr. Olu Aladenusi, who disclosed this in Lagos, noted that most Nigerian barge operators do not have classed facilities and that some do not belong to the supposed owners of the barges that they are operating with.
Aladenusi
further explained that NIMASA “got a letter from the ministry of transportation
to work with Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and there has been collaboration
between both agencies to reduce the challenges we are having as regards barge
operations.
“Committee
comprising NPA, NIMASA, National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, and Lagos
State Water Management Authority, LASWMA is currently working.
“On
the area of protection of Nigerian operators, we have to work very carefully
and very fast if we must protect them because we have regulations to building
of barges and they are not obeying any of the regulations. These foreigners
have started classing their barges; no Nigerian owner is ready to class their
barges.
“Right
now, VVLs have started building barges for APM Terminals and by the time they
come into the business, they are going to send our people out of business. “Barges
that we have on our waters today are not barges meant for carrying cargoes,
there are work barges, they are house barges.
“Work
barges are barges that are parked by a ship while they are carrying out repairs
and you put your tools on it. These are what they converted for use as a result
of the gridlock, we are having and because of the peculiar problems we have on
the roads.
“We
are working with NPA, NIWA, and other agencies to make sure that we pull off
these barges out of our waters but there is a need to come out with a rule. We must
give the Nigerian barge owners the right warning now to start building with
class because the job of carrying cargo is a very serious one.
Similarly,
Director Cabotage, Rita Uruakpa, said the barge operators recently held a
meeting with NIMASA where they were told that for them to be protected they
must be regulated because they are presently unregulated.
“I
have already told them what to do at that meeting and I am sure that before the
end of the month (April) they will get back to us,” she noted.
There are indications to show the barge operators are yet to get back to NIMASA as promised, as at the time of this report.
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