The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) may be lobbying President Goodluck Jonathan to grant the agency partial autonomy from remittance into the Federation Account for next five years.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the ground-breaking ceremony for its Dockyard/Shipyard facility and Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Warri, Delta State last weekend, the NIMASA boss, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi said that the demand is to further empower the agency financially and enable it commit all its accruable resources to the twin projects.
Already, Akpobolokemi said that the proposal has been submitted to the President and that the agency is only awaiting his approval.
Justifying the need for the Federal Government to exempt NIMASA from all capital remittances into the Federation Account for five years, Akpobolokemi said that the project being carried out by NIMASA is billed to gulp billions of dollars, and that the agency does not want to run to government for money at all times for the project.
"We call for our exclusion for at least five years because of the capital intensive nature of the project; after all, the projects are for Nigerians, they are federal government projects and when you see that some sectors go back to the presidency for incentive, bail out, and so on, then you know we are also qualified, considering what we are doing for our people and for the government of Nigeria", he argued.
He added: "Some other agencies go to the federal government to ask for money or even to ask for bail out, but we don’t do that, we are talking about what we are contributing within some period because cumulatively all this project may go up to a billion dollars and you can imagine how expensive it is and that is why we are asking for it".
"The president will put the necessary paper and look into that file, if they wish to grant them we will be happy" he stressed.
Akpobolokemi also argued that statutorily, part of the agency's revenue is transferred to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in order to assist it to grow.
He said that as a stop gap measure to fill the death of capacity in the maritime industry, NIMASA is training 2,500 Nigerians in different maritime schools in different regions in maritime Universities and Academies abroad and that this is a very big boost to the sector.
"We don’t stop there, we also help to assist outside our statutory obligations; all to get capacity, and when this university will be developed, when the academic session starts, it will increase the capacity".
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