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Dakuku seeks stakeholders’ commitment to ensuring safer maritime domain

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, DG NIMASA

 …Says
Regional Maritime Security is also Paramount to Nigeria’s Economic Development


The
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside has stated that security in the Nigerian
Maritime domain is a work in progress that requires the commitment of all
stakeholders to ensure optimum safety of all investments in the sector.

Speaking
to journalists in Lagos at the weekend, Dr. Peterside stated that the Agency
was taking the lead on the issue of maritime safety in the entire West and
Central African sub-region noting that safety and security in the Gulf of
Guinea has a direct impact on the Nigerian economy.

The
NIMASA DG noted that a lot of factors contribute to the cost of products coming
into the country through the seas, which makes it very important to tackle
insecurity in the waterways.

The DG
said, “we must ensure the security of the Gulf of Guinea
because  Nigeria is not isolated from whatever happens  in
the region which may lead to negative economic impact, or increase in the cost
of insurance or war premium insurance and ultimately lead to high cost of goods
and services which will be borne by the consumer of the goods and services.”

While
noting that 65% of cargo heading to the region ends up in Nigeria, Dr Peterside
who is also the current chairman of the Association of African Maritime
Administrations, AAMA said that securing the nation’s territorial waters was a
work in progress that requires the commitment of all stakeholders and
neighboring countries, noting that the Management of NIMASA has recognized this
fact and is implementing international regulatory instruments in collaboration
with various countries in the region to checkmate criminal activities.

In his
words, “no maritime crime occurs
within a jurisdiction alone. Very often the trend is that maritime crime starts
from one jurisdiction and ends in another. The only way we can tackle maritime
crime is all of us working together and there have been several regional
initiatives in that respect to tackle maritime crime. Apart from the ECOWAS
Integrated Maritime Strategy, you have the Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy,
you have the Gulf of Guinea Commission dealing with the same thing there are
several sub-regional and regional initiatives to tackle maritime insecurity so
I see a lot of potentials in regional collaboration and integration.”

He said
that on the home front, the Agencies of the government especially in the
Transport sector have seen collaboration as the way to go and that it had
occasioned the renewal of the MoU between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy as well
as partnership with other sister parastals.

Dr.
Peterside also noted that the Agency’s goal in the implementation of the
International Ships and Ports Facility Security (ISPS) Code is 100% implementation
level, stating that the Agency is still not resting on its laurels after
achieving over 90% implementation level within a short period of being
appointed the Designated Authority of the implementation of the code.

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