Piracy, Sea Robbery Across Gulf Of Guinea To Further Decrease In 2022 -DG NIMASA

Piracy, Sea Robbery Across Gulf Of Guinea To Further Decrease In 2022 -DG NIMASA

....NIMASA Records 43.6% Rise In Number Of  Vessels Surveyed In 2021

Piracy, Sea Robbery and other crimes across the Gulf of Guinea region will be reduced to the barest minimum in 2022 considering the concerted efforts of the NIMASA and key stakeholders in the regions.

The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh made this known at a press conference on Friday at the NIMASA head office in Lagos.

The DG disclosed that incidences of piracy, sea robbery and other related maritime crimes in the country and across the entire Gulf of Guinea region has recorded a 28-year low going by figures released by global maritime agencies including the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau IMB, which is a branch of International Chamber of Commerce ICC.

According to NIMASA DG the piracy figures released last year by the IMB shows that Nigeria in particular and the Gulf of Guinea in general has not recorded this level of decline in piracy and other maritime crimes since 1994.

He attributed this sharp drop to  a combination of factors including efforts of the 25-member nations of the Gulf of Guinea, collaborations of the agency, the Nigerian Navy, the international navies, the European Union and many other countries of the world and importantly the deployment of the Deep Blue Project assets which he said played a significant role.

“If you ask me, the sharp decline in the level of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea is as a result of concerted global efforts. Recently, Korea donated a military ship to us and we require $1.4million to bring it to Nigeria. I hear Japan is also planning to donate similar equipment to us.”

The DG said though the agency has deployed all the maritime security assets under the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure also called the Deep Blue Project, all the assets have yet to be fully operational.

The NIMASA boss hinted that a Federal Government’s Steering Committee on the implementation of the maritime security initiatives, co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Ministry of Defence is currently developing an organogramm, after which all the deployed security assets would be fully operational.

According to him, the organogramm would clearly define who does what under the maritime security initiative, especially between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy; the two principal actors in the management of the country’s waterways security infrastructure.

“We have deployed all the maritime security assets under the Deep Blue Project but some of them are not fully operational. This is because the Steering Committee co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Federal Ministry of Defence is working out an organogramm in terms of who does what.

“You know the Deep Blue Project assets are not for maritime security alone, they are meant to complement what the Nigerian Navy is doing in terms of providing security on the nation’s territorial waters, so we are doing everything procedurally”, the DG said.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had last year launched the assets under the project, some of which had been deployed since February last year to combat piracy on land, air and sea within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ.

The DG who also spoke on the achievement of the agency in 2021 disclosed that  under condition survey,  489 vessels were surveyed in 2021 which represents a 43.6 percent increase when compared with 276 vessels  surveyed  in 2020.

For the port state control functions of the agency, Dr Jamoh disclosed that 429 foreign vessels were boarded to ensure that each vessel maintained safety, pollution standards while at Nigeria ports and waters.

“The figure of vessels recorded under port state implementation for the year under review stands at 675 which is 24.2  per cent higher than the 510 vessels inspections carried out in 2020,” he stated.

He further  disclosed that plans are  on the pipeline  for the privatisation of the moribund modular floating dockyard which will be on Public Private Partnership (PPP), arrangement.

While  assuring  stakeholders of the maritime industry that the floating dock will be operational before the end of first quarter of 2022, Jamoh said, “we don’t want to operate it by government or NIMASA alone but as Public Private Partnership. As usual, the issue of privatisation of any government property is not a product but a process.”

Although, Jamoh  did not mention the foreign  pritivatepartners to the project, he, however disclosed  that the Nigerian Ports Authority is a co partner in the process with provision of its Continental Shipyard.
“We have been undergoing this process, and the DG ICRC was here for the first certificate, telling us that privatisation of the floating dock is profitable,doable and they gave us the go ahead to do that.

“We have also gone ahead with the Managing partner and co-pattern, which is the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, with the provision of Continental Shipyard. We expect in no distance future maximum by February 2022.”

He hinted privatisation must be approved by the Federal Executive Council because it’s a national asset, explaining that the cost implications cannot be handled by the federal government alone pointing out that privatisation would future aid the floating dock operations.

The NIMASA boss lamented the number of failures recorded among Nigerian seafarers who sat for Certificate of Competency examinations in the year 2020.

He said that, in the officers cadre in 2020, 829 sat for the examination while total number of 264 candidates passed and certified forming a percentage of 32 per cent

He disclosed that the total number of 565 candidates failed which formed 68 percent and making a total certificates revalidated for year 2021 to stand at 246.

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