The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside, has declared that the Association of African Maritime Administration under his leadership as the chairman has prioritised projecting Africa as a block deserving a larger share of global maritime trade, based on its contributions.
Peterside spoke during a breakfast meeting with some journalists in Lagos to mark the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations, according to a statement signed by the Head, Corporate Communications, NIMASA, Mr Isichei Osamgbi.
The NIMASA DG said, “Some African countries still operate along colonial inclination and that tends to slow down development particularly in the maritime sector. In those countries where democracy is fully thriving such as Nigeria, stakeholders in the maritime sector now speak with the voice of development, independent of colonial masters.
“AAMA, under my watch has been able to give African maritime sector a new voice, particularly at the International Maritime Organization.”
According to him, the agency has become one of the leading parastatals of the Federal Government in its huge contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, adding that some policies his administration adopted alongside the Treasury Single Account are responsible for this.
“NIMASA has transformed from contributing barely N3bn to over N20bn annually to the CRF and it will keep getting better,” he said.
He added, “In order to block financial leakages, we subscribed to a full bouquet of the Lloyds and Clarkson intelligence; this made it almost impossible for any vessel calling at our ports to escape or under declare; the TSA and our collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service among other agencies also played an important role.”
Peterside also restated NIMASA’s commitment to growing indigenous capacity in the sector, noting that the engagement currently taking place between the agency and the Central Bank of Nigeria was aimed at securing special interest rates and intervention funds for vessel acquisition and other ancillary transactions in the sector, and everything was geared towards improving the Cabotage regime and the realisation of a robust maritime sector.