The director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh, said that the Agency is committed to continued collaboration with all stakeholders to ensure that Nigeria sustains the declining rate of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea region.
Jamoh, who said this in Lagos during an interactive session with media stakeholders over the weekend, noted that there is steady progress in the area of maritime security and safety.
According to him, the statistics released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) showing that incidents of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea region dropped from 81 in the year 2020 to 34 in 2021, representing 58.02 percent, was not by accident, but a product of conscious collaborative efforts by the Agency, the Nigerian Navy and other stakeholders in the region.
He also noted that the IMB report also shows a 62 percent decrease in the number of crew kidnapping incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, which will be reduced from 150 in 2020 to 57 in 2021.
On the statutory levies payable to the Federal Government through the Agency, Jamoh reaffirmed that NIMASA levies are in accordance with the provisions of the Act that set up the agency.
“The NIMASA Act 2007 which is our guiding principle only states that our charges must be a component of the gross freight and must be paid by shipowners not in terms of product to marketers or any other entity,” Jamoh said.
The NIMASA DG said that all the payments either in hard currency or naira, are made into the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government, adding that in the long run, it was for the benefit of all Nigerians that the country does not lose any source of her revenue through underpayment in statutory charges or levies.
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On the recent explosion which occurred on Trinity Spirit Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), the NIMASA DG described the incident as unfortunate.
He said the NIMASA team is working with other relevant organs of Government to establish the immediate and remote causes of the fire explosion.
According to him, the issue of environmental pollution was highlighted in the preliminary report and the Agency will work with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) through the use of the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) funds to compensate for all the losses within and around the facility.
Jamoh said that the public will be informed of every detail concerning the incident as the situation unfolds.
He used the opportunity to reel out some of the achievements of the Agency in the year 2021 including improved contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government, from 31 billion in 2020 to about 37 billion in the year 2021; an increase of 43.6 percent in condition survey for Flag Registration by the agency in the year 2021 as against the performance in the year 2020; reactivation of the online certificate verification platform to reduce falsification of Nigerian Seafarers Certificate and an enhance employment of Nigerian Seafarers.
Others include improved strategic collaboration with the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Airforce, the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army, and the office of the National Security Adviser a move, Jamoh noted has helped to reduce piracy attacks off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, as there was no single attack on Nigerian waters in the third quarter of 2021, as reported by the International Maritime Bureau.
