ZAINAB JUNAID
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dayo Mobereola has on Monday, 12 August 2024, engaged media Practitioners in the maritime industry in an interactive session to jointly address salient issues affecting the sector and make Nigeria a vibrant international Maritime Country.
Dr Mobereola who emphasized the importance of journalists in reshaping the face of the industry, wooed the media Practitioners by promising good relations and improving infrastructure in area of training, and also sought their support to move the industry forward even as he enjoined them to be accurate and factual in their reports for Nigeria to have positive face value at international level.
Speaking on core mandates of the agency, the DG disclosed that the agency has engaged critical stakeholders in the industry to achieve the goals of making the sector most important Maritime centre.
He revealed that the agency has collaborated with National Inland Waterway Authority(NIWA) to address the issue of vessel capsizing and safety.
He said “On safety awareness, we have collaborated with our sister agency to ensure that even at the deep and brown water which NIWA manages, we can reduce drastically the issue of vessel capsizing and safety which is one of our core mandates”.
On Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF), the NIMASA Boss revealed that the fund is currently with the Federal Government and is intact.
To him, “CVFF fund is for the use of the ship owners and not a revenue. It is a contribution towards the development of the Nigeria Shipping Industry and Ship Owners. That is what it is going to be used for as long as we come back with a fine-tuned guidelines on how to use it which we have been working on with my Executive Directors day in day out, everything will come to place and it will be for the benefit of the industry”.
Similarly, on modular floating dock, he stated that the dock will commence operations soon as executive members of the agency recently visited the dock and several proposals have been put forward on its management.
While fielding question on floating National Carrier, Dr. Mobereola advocated for an enabling environment that will encourage private ship owners to have vessels that can be classified as Nigeria flag vessel and be supported by the government.
“On National Carrier, we should go the way of the agencies and government creating enabling environment to encourage the private ship owners to have vessels which we can classify as Nigeria flag vessel and will be supported by Nigerians and government and will also be encouraged to carry Nigeria goods inward and outward the country. A vessel with a Nigeria flag and can sail internationally to all the countries in the world. This I’m sure you know we will be proud of,” he submitted.
