Nigeria will be back to the exclusive White List of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in the next one year, the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has said.
The NIMASA DG who replaced Dakuku Peterside a few months ago has set returning Nigeria to White List – a list of countries certified by International Maritime Organization as properly implementing the STCW-95 (Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) convention – as one of his priorities for the year.
Jimoh spoke on with maritime journalists in Lagos, at the weekend, as part of stakeholders’ engagement to mark his 100 days in office, also revealed that the agency had obtained information on a suspected pirate who works with Shell.
He said, “There are two Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that we have set for ourselves, Firstly, Nigeria has to be back on the White List of the IMO. This is a target that I have set for myself in my four years as DG NIMASA. Hopefully, by the end of next year, I will like to see Nigeria back on the IMO White List. This is our number one target in NIMASA.
“Our second target has to do with the IMO Category C seat. We can only be relevant in the committee of maritime nations if we have seat in the IMO Council. By November next year, Nigeria has to be back on the IMO Category C seat.
“Nigeria has given me four years to actualize these things, but I have set for myself November next year to ensure these things are actualised.”
Jimoh said that he recently got information on the privates causing insecurity in Nigerian waters.
“Recently in January this year, one of our informants showed me a picture of a suspected well-known pirate who currently works with Shell. He told me that if we can arrest the suspected pirate, we will get much information from him regarding maritime insecurity,” he said.
“Even last week, a naval officer gave me the name of a person that ought to be arrested. That if we arrest that person, we will get a lot of information and intelligence on maritime insecurity in our waters from him.”
The NIMASA boss said that the agency was paying attention on intelligence gathering, pointing out that it was intelligence that helped it apprehend arrest the maritime pirates that were paraded recently.”
On the N50 billion floating dock acquired by NIMASA, Jimoh said it was expected to generate N1 billion monthly or N12 billion annually when work on it is concluded.
The dock was acquired by the agency in 2018 as part of efforts to escalate performance in Nigeria’s maritime industry and bring it up to speed with international standards.
The Rainbow with agency reports
