NIMASA bags 2016 Public Organisation of The Year Award by TELL

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The Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has emerged the winner of the 2016
Public Organization of The Year Award organized by TELL Magazine Nigeria
Limited.

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, DG NIMASA

During a recent visit
to the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, to inform him of the
award, the Chairman, Awards Committee of TELL Magazine, Mr. Babs Alasa, said
the process leading to the award of Public Organisation of the Year to NIMASA
began with a call for nominations from the public. He said the nomination
brought out three organisations, with NIMASA earning the highest percentage of
the votes to beat the other two.“Credibility is key to the process”, he assured.

Accordingly, respondents
were of the opinion that NIMASA under the leadership of Dr. Dakuku Peterside
has undergone total reforms
which has seen it playing its expected role as a facilitator of economic
prosperity in the maritime sector, a position Vice President Yemi Osinbajo corroborated during the 3rd conference
of the Association of African Maritime Administration, (AAMA) which was hosted
by NIMASA in conjunction with the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The recently
approved Maritime Security Architecture and Infrastructure to be jointly
coordinated by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA),
the Ministry of Transportation and the Office of the National Security Adviser
(NSA) is seen as one major reason Nigerian voted the Agency as the Public
Organization of the year.

In addition, the full automation of all
NIMASA operational processes and the restructuring
of the Agency that has led to semi-autonomous zonal operations so that
functions such as issuance of Sailing Certificates, payment of bills and other
operational procedures decentralized are seen as enhancing the Federal
Government’s ease of doing business initiative to attract Foreign Direct
Investment into Nigeria.

Furthermore, the Agency currently
undergoing total rebranding process, has also improved Nigeria’s compliance
level of the International Ships and Port
Facility Security (ISPS) Code since becoming the Designated Authority for its
implementation in Nigeria.

The present management
at NIMASA has intensified the Agency’s drive to ensure strict ISPS Code
compliance and the result is that Nigeria now has a compliance rate of almost
80% as 114 Port facilities out of the total 145 ports in Nigeria are now fully
ISPS compliant. This is considered a remarkable achievement considering the
fact that NIMASA was only appointed the Designated Authority for the
implementation of ISPS Code in Nigeria barely 5 years ago when compliance level
was barely 13%.

Efforts of the Agency
to grow human capital through the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme has
also received wide commendation

So far, 1045
beneficiaries have graduated from the project, representing 42% graduates of
the over 2500 NIMASA sponsored beneficiaries.

The challenge of sea
time which hitherto was a challenge has now been resolved as Dr. Peterside and
his team has been able to engage schools in Egypt, United Kingdom (UK) and
Turkey to directly facilitate sea time training for NSDP graduates. 300
graduates are to get their sea time training through Arab academy in Egypt,
over 220 to get sea time facilitated by South Tyneside College in south shield
in the UK, while another 400 will acquire sea time through training
institutions in Turkey.

The Awards according
to the organisers, slated for June 17, 2017 at the Civic Centre, Victoria
Island, Lagos also has as recipients; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who emerged
winner in the National Icon of Democracy category, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross
Rivers State as the Governor of the year, Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs. Aisha
Buhari as the Woman of the year, and late Dele Giwa as the all-time “national
icon of freedom of speech”, amongst others.