The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA); Dr Bashir Jamoh has disclosed that unlike what is being speculated, the agency’s modular floating is not costing the agency any revenue where it currently anchored.
A floating dock is one out of five types of drydocks used for ship repairs. It is a submersible platform that is specifically designed and used to repair vessels, being a mobile facility that can be navigated to the location of a disabled vessel at sea. It has capacity to carry vessels and navigate back to base where a disabled vessel can then be repaired and restored back to service.
The NIMASA DG made this disclosure last week while receiving the report of a seven-member committee that was inaugurated to assess the agency’s performance between March 2020 and March 2021.
He said contrary to insinuation in the media, NIMASA has not paid any money to keep or maintain the floating dock at the Naval Dockyard since the current management came on board in March 2020.
“It is not true that we are losing money or that we are spending money on the floating dock. Since we came on board, we have not spent a dime on the floating dock”, he stated.
He insisted that reports that NIMASA has abandoned the floating dock is also not true, even as
he acknowledged that, NIMASA had challenges with where to put the floating dock and that the challenges still exits.
“Yes we had challenges with the floating dock, but the challenges still exist, because the original plan for the floating was for it to be taken to Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu kingdom, but there was no proper planning on where to keep the floating dock, so when it came, we were at a loss. The water there is shallow, the issue of security is there. Can you carry your asset to where you can be attacked”?
He explained that, the floating dock was where it had been since the new management came on board, and that efforts were in top gear to move it from the Naval Dockyard to the Continental Shipyard, which is owned by the Nigerian Ports Authourity.
He added that a consultant was engaged to give business case plan for the craft. He said the consultant turned in a report which indicate that, the cost implication of keeping the floating dock at Okerenkoko is almost equal to the cost of the floating dock.
The NIMASA DG stated that the management require so many approvals on what to do with the dock.
“So we had to go into a PPP arrangement which is divided into three – one with the managing partner, two with the owner of Continental Shipyard, and three with the owner of the floating dock, we had to sit down and agree among ourselves to take our case to the ICRC, which must look at what we have and see whether we are in line and in tune with laid down rules and guidelines of a public private partnership agreement”, he explained.
