The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said it has introduced a Search and Rescue (SAR) marshal programme, which will kick-off with the deployment of 1000 young officers as marshals to jetties and terminals across the country.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos in yesterday to commemorate his one year in office, Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, also said that under his watch in the past one year, the agency has brought piracy to its lowest level by recording less than 4 successful attacks. He equally said that NIMASA has brought maritime accident to its barest minimum from as high as 60 accidents, down to 10.
He said that a total of 11 piracy cases were reported in past one year, 6 were foiled and less than 4 of them succeeded. Peterside said that NIMASA has been able to record such feat with supports from the United States, the IMO, and built a network of relationship with her regional partners in the area of intelligence sharing. In the meantime, he said NIMASA is also working on its anti-piracy bill.
The NIMASA boss said that port industry stakeholders should brace-up for activities of the new SAR Marshals as their presence would soon be witnessed all around Nigerian ports and jetties. He said that initially, the number of young men and women drawn for the scheme was 100, but that Minister of Transportation; Rotimi Amaechi gave the backing that the number be increased to 1000.
Peterside admitted that even though Nigeria was made Regional Maritime Search and Rescue Centre, the agency had literally done no work in that direction. He however said in the past one year, his administration has revived the role. He noted that the agency has equally got a presidential backing to acquire assets that will be deployed at strategic locations in order to enhance the agency’s ability to increase safety of vessels within Nigerian maritime domain.
“There is need to embark on a new level of safety awareness at our various jetties, terminals and other strategic maritime locations, and to do this, we have designed the search and rescue marshal programme, and increased its number from 100 to 1000 with the backing of the Minister”
“Very soon, you would begin to see at various jetties and terminals, some young men and women wearing SAR marshal vests, they would be there to ensure that people comply with rules and regulations and even in maritime transportation and that whenever there is distress, they would be able to respond as a short term measure, pending when the best professionals would come around” he said
Peterside also told journalists that NIMASA has intensified its efforts in the implementation of International Ships and Ports Facility Code (ISPS), he said that Nigeria now has a compliance rate of almost 80percent as 114 port facilities out of the total 145 ports in Nigeria are now fully ISPS compliant. He said that 8percent of the remaining 31 port facilities are currently pursuing compliance and that the agency targets a 100percent compliance level within the next twelve months.
“We have brought maritime accident to its barest minimum in the past 365 days; there was a time when we use to record as much as 60, 50, 40 maritime accidents on our waterways, in the past one year however, we have recorded less than 10 maritime accident and this is at the centre of our mandate. We were able to inspect more than 15 per cent of vessels calling at our ports under our port state function”
In the area of Cabotage, he said that the agency recorded successes with over 60 per cent of Nigerians now working on board vessels. He said that before 2003, less than 3percent of vessels on Nigerian waters were Nigerian flagged, but today, 60percent of vessels doing business in Nigeria are flying the Nigerian flag.
He said that the Nigerian flag has equally enjoyed tremendous growth in 12 months with 370 vessels with a tonnage of 420,000 GRT were registered in 2016 as against 262 vessels and 232,000 GRT registered in 2015.
On the Cabotage vessel financing fund (CVFF) he assured that the agency is trying to work on the regulations guiding the disbursement of the fund, and that presently the CVFF fund has accrued to over 100million US dollars.
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