Oluyinka Onigbinde
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said it contributed a total of N37,691,630,450.02 into the consolidated revenue account of the Federal Government in 2021 as against N31, 839,917,978.20 that was raked-in in 2020.
Director General NIMASA; Dr. Bashir Jamoh stated this while briefing newsmen on Friday, even as he assured that the agency will firm-up it’s effort to generate more revenue into government coffers in 2022.
The NIMASA boss, while reeling out the agency’s report and performance in 2021 said a total of 489 vessels were surveyed during the year under review, as against the 276 vessels surveyed in 2020, representing a 43.6 percent increase.
According to him, the increase in the number of vessels that were surveyed is an indication of the maritime administration’s seriousness in terms of Flag State survey.
For Port State Control functions of NIMASA, he said 429 foreign vessels were boarded to ensure that they maintained safety and pollution standards while at our ports and waters.
Speaking on seafarers who sat for Certificate of Competency examinations in 2020 and 2021, the NIMASA DG lamented the huge number of failures recorded among Nigerian seafarers.
The DG disclosed that 829 seafarers sat for the examination under the officer cadre, but lamented that only 264 passed, representing just 32% of the total number of seafarers who sat for the exams. He added that the total number of candidates that failed is 565, forming a percentage of 68%. Total certificates revalidated for 2021 is 246.
According to him: “You can see very serious and negative figures in terms of our students seating for professional examinations of different certificates amounting to 68% failure.
“The agency is liaising with various institutions to see how we can address this gap.
There are so many factors attached to this, and we hope that before the middle of 2022, we would overcome these challenges
“In 2020, Officers examination, total number that sat for that examination was 610, and total number that passed was only 251, forming a percentage of 41% pass, while 359 failed, amounting to 59% failure.
“The total number of certificates revalidated was 132, this means that in 2021, we had 246, a considerable increase as being recorded.
“For Officers ratings, the total number that sat for the exams were 1,251, out of this, 926 passed, representing 74% passed. The total number of candidates that failed is 325, representing 26% failure.
“In the examination for ratings in 2021, the total number of students who sat for the exams are 1,327, this is a sharp increase against the 2020 figure of 1,251. The total number of candidates passed is 990 forming also 74% passed. Total number of candidates failed is 337 with a percentage of failure of 26%” he said.
He noted that Online Seafarers’ Certificate of Competency was reactivated and the project had drastically reduced forgery of Nigerian certificate and enhanced the employment of Nigerian seafarers in the maritime sector.
“We have been experiencing rejection and discrimination against Nigerian seafarers by ship owners both locally and internationally and the agency decided to introduce the online certification platform.
“This allows ship owners to access those candidates that passed our examination directly in the comfort of their offices. This will grow the standard of our certification,” he said.
Read Also: NIMASA Says Abandoned Floating Dock’ll Begin Operation Q1, 2021
He said due to the drastic increase in the use of barges, the agency introduced safety regulations and the ISO9001 quality assurance certification for the operation of maritime safety department was also introduced.
He noted that Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Marine Transport Coordination Centre towards achieving and preventing marine pollution and control.
For maritime security, Jamoh said the deep Blue project commissioned by President Muhammad Buhari had been deployed to the Nigerian Navy for use.
He said there were plans to activate the marine police to help secure the anchorage area and partner with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to inspect vessels to ensure illicit drugs were discovered.
“In 2022, the agency is focused on strengthening maritime safety mechanism, organising stakeholders’ engagement, increase revenue contribution.
“We believe the N37 billion generated is not our own milestone, we are working hard to ensure we get to the promise land,” he said.
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