Maritime security experts under the aegis of the Support for West African Maritime Security’’ (SWAIMS), have pledged to partner the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to address maritime security and safety within the country’s waters.
The group, affiliated to the European Union, says it provides support to ECOWAS countries and Mauritania in the drive to fight against piracy and related crimes in the sub-region offered its technical assistance on the anti-piracy and nautical security services, among others.
The group said it would also provide capacity building on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as radar surveillance on cyber security.
A statement by Mr Olaseni Alakija, General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of the NPA, said that the SWAIMS team led by Dr Alex Klein was received by Mr Onari Brown, Executive Director, Marine and Operations.
Read Also: Customs Intercepts 1,387 Cartons Of Tramadol In Rivers
Brown, who represented the acting Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, emphasised the need to partner with policy makers in view of the cost of insecurity.
“This is necessary to take the drive to the next level,” he said, stressing that insecurity encourages inflation, high operating costs and impacts negatively on standard of living.
The acting Managing Director, in his remarks, stated that issues of maritime insecurity had heightened hence the need to tackle the matter frontally.
He urged the SWAIMS team to diligently concentrate on the theme of their operation which, he said, NPA would always identify with.
He also emphasised the need for information sharing, declaring that it was key to tackling maritime and cyber insecurity in the industry and beyond.
Discussion about this post