The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr Dakuku Peterside, says the maritime industry needs everybody on board, especially the highly-skilled professionals like marine engineers and surveyors.
Peterside made the remark when members of the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) paid a courtesy visit to the headquarters of NIMASA in Lagos.
He said that professionalism had a key role to play in the development and growth of the maritime industry in Nigeria.
Peterside described the role of the body (AMES) to the sector as indispensible and called on professionals to bring to the fore their expertise in helping the agency actualise its core mandate of regulating the industry.
He said marine engineers and surveyors were highly-skilled and focused professionals who could not be brushed aside.
The director-general said that the present Management of NIMASA was working hard and leaving no stone unturned to reposition and rebuild the maritime sector to make it a world class.
“We are building a maritime administration that will keep pace with modern maritime thinking and to do that, we need everybody onboard.
“In the industry, it is good to have assets. You can have ships, have other assets but the greatest asset we can have in the industry is manpower.
“So we need manpower to drive the industry and that is where the marine engineers and the surveyors come in,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes the director-general as saying.
The President of the Association, Mr Charles Uwadia, commended the NIMASA Management for its strides in getting the maritime sector to the right path.
He said the association would support NIMASA’s developmental initiatives.
Uwadia also expressed the willingness of the body to partner with NIMASA in contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s policies to raise the international profile of the country in the comity of nations.
“The Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors are stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime and shipping industry and we are concerned about the success of the Nigerian maritime shipping industry and its fundamental contribution to the overall economy of Nigeria.
“We, therefore, assure you of our continuous support in your efforts to reposition the Nigerian maritime sector.
“It is worthy to note that the present management of NIMASA is committed to focusing on its core mandate.
“This it has done through various collaborative efforts geared toward the development of the sector and by extension the Nigerian economy.
“These include: delivering excellent service in the areas of maritime safety; making the maritime domain safe and navigable; providing adequate supervision for our marine environmental management; averting and reducing pollution at sea.
“Others are meeting relevant International Maritime Organisation (IMO) mandate as well as helping to grow indigenous shipping and to also carry out port and flag state responsibilities, ’’ NAN quotes the engineer as saying.
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