The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said it will use $1.5 million (about N630 million) to transport a shift the Republic of Korea donated to Nigeria.
The Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Bashir Jamoh disclosed this in Lagos at a media parley with journalists.
He said the ship is to aid the fight against piracy and maintain safety in her sea and in the Gulf of Guinea.
He said when the ship is ferried to Nigeria, it would further help to complement the equipment already deployed by the agency under the Deep Blue Sea to fight piracy and maintain safety.
It is not immediately clear why more than half a billon will be used to transport an empty ship to Nigeria as the what would be required will be payment for crew, fuel, weather information and other few charges. NIMASA also not explained how the $1.5 million bill was arrived at and what are the components.
The NIMASA boss also stated that in 2021 the organization introduced a zero duty on new vessels to boost the growth of the local shipping industry and to discourage the acquisition of old vessels which eventually become debris on seashores of the nation.
On the floating dock, he said that the organization had adopted a private-public partnership model which involves NIMASA, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and a foreign organization to run the dock, assuring that the dock would be operational by the first quarter of the year 2022.
“The floating dock will not be operated by NIMASA but through private-public partnership model for its operation. This is under process and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission has given us go-ahead. We have negotiated with our co-partners – NPA and the managing partner. We are adopting this model to put the floating dock into operation to reduce operational cost,” said Jamoh.
He said that in 2021, a total of 489 vessels were inspected as against 276 inspected in 2020 stressing that only 12 sea accidents were recorded by NIMASA in the year against 18 which happened in 2020. He noted that necessary recommendations had been taken to avert further marine accidents in 2022 and beyond. He added that necessary actions were taken to regulate the operations of barges.
Jamoh who said the agency in the year remitted N37.9 billion into the coffers of the federal government maintained that the agency in 2022 would organize stakeholders to tap the deep blue sea resources. He stressed that the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) money is intact and not spent by the government as being speculated as the necessary approval for the disbursement of the fund is in pipeline.
