The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency – Dr Dakuku Peterside, has received the report of the committee on the review of the Nigerian Ship Registry, with a notice that the agency’s target is to have a world-class ship registry.
He stated that the target was for Nigeria to have a ship registry that would meet international certification standards and compete favourably with the best in the global maritime community.
He disclosed this while receiving the report of the committee tasked with reviewing the activities and operations of the Nigerian Ship Registration Office.
“NIMASA is working at giving Nigerians a ship registry that is respected across the globe and that will be attractive to shipowners, so they can fly the Nigerian flag. In no distant future, our ship registry will be more effective, more efficient and responsive to change, thus meeting international standards for certification,” a statement from NIMASA quoted him as saying.
Dakuku remarked that the agency had already initiated the process of automating the Nigerian Ship Registry.
He said from the preliminary report earlier submitted to NIMASA, the thorough implementation of the findings of the committee would have a beneficial effect on the Nigerian maritime sector.
“We are putting in place the necessary building blocks for Nigeria to be the first African country to achieve a five-star International Standards Certification by 2020.”
The committee Chairman, Emmanuel Ilori, stated that ship registration and the effectiveness of the established processes in a country’s maritime sector operations were critical in determining the health of a national maritime administration.
He said, “All the committee’s efforts were geared towards making the Nigerian flag globally acceptable. The committee carried out an extensive review of the Nigerian Ship Registry, took cognizance of stakeholders’ opinions and expectations, and carried out a comparative analysis of the ship registration processes of some global registries in arriving at the report. NIMASA management should consider and implement submissions contained in the report.”
According to the statement, the terms of reference of the nine-man committee, which was set up in February 2018, included to examine the status of the ship registry in line with international best practices; advise and recommend requisite improvements of necessity in the registry.
