The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has reinstated the agency commitment to effective performance even as he stressed the need to restructure the current organogram.
Peterside who made this known yesterday, during a parley with maritime journalists in Lagos further disclosed that the agency structure still operate on the defunct National Maritime Agency (NMA), a situation that needed urgent attention for effective performance.
The NIMASA boss said he inherited a workforce that is resourceful, dynamic but somehow has not been goal-oriented.
According to him, there was leadership gap at some point between staff and top management which poses a serious threat to agency workforce.
The DG affirmed that his mandate in NIMASA is to restructure, reform and that the repositioning process, staff welfare must be taken seriously.
He said that the major cardinal objective
In NIMASA which is to reform, reposition and to restructure is a singular act saying that there will be five pillars objectives to be achieved.
"Pillar number is what we call the survey of certification and transformation initiative
"Pillar number three will be of capacity building and promotion initiatives while the fourth one deals with digital "
"But the fifth pillar which is important because it is the basis for the other ones is the structural and transformational programme "
"You recall that NIMASA is a fusion of what used to be called National Maritime Authority and Joint Maritime Labour industrial Council (JOMALIC) now the two were brought together by an Act National Assembly, but unfortunately NIMASA is still using the structure of NMA organogram with department for JOMALIC and call it maritime labour"
"As at when NMA was there no Cabotage Act and a lot of things were not there, hence we intend to change the foundation of NIMASA, by putting a new structure and organogram in place to accomplish the new goals we intend to achieve" ,he stated.
He further described the move as a cultural reform in NIMASA, pointing out that the restructuring will help assess the ways, manner and orientation of staff performance.
"We intend to embark on a change management programme that focuses on the culture and work ethics of our people in NIMASA and also put a new structure in place”.
He said there is need to review how NIMASA staff discharge their duties ,noting that the agency will achieve better result in the new organogram rejig and new job schedule.
He said that the process will not lead to job loss, but in his own preliminary view the restructuring will aid staff perform better.
The NIMASA boss however affirmed that the apex regulatory agency is over-staffed but assured that the restructuring process was not going to affect any form of job loss.
“The times are quite challenging given the dwindling global economy, decline in crude oil price and foreign exchange and fiscal policies which have impacted the revenue of the Agency. This requires ingenious leadership to actualise our policy direction and we are committed to providing that leadership” the DG said.
According to Dr. Peterside, one of the ways to shore up the Agency’s income to actualise this strategy programme is to block revenue leakages through the full automation of systems and processes to eliminate human contact and increase efficiency.
On capacity building, the DG affirmed his commitment to providing sea time training to cadets of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme and the judicial application of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to assist local operators to re-fleet and increase the nation’s tonnage.
Dr. Peterside said that in the short term, the strategic plan of the Agency aims to achieve full automation by the end of 2016, achieve 100% efficiency and effectiveness in processes within the same period and complete its rebranding process by the end of the first quarter of 2017.
He promised that under his watch, NIMASA will be run efficiently and transparently saying that the maritime media and maritime stakeholders in general should judge his performance by the achievement of the Medium term Strategic Growth Plan.
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