The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has charged marine surveyors on the importance of ensuring unwavering integrity and professionalism in carrying out their responsibility.
Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, gave the charge in his keynote address at the on-going two -day marine surveyors’ workshop holding in Calabar, Cross-River State.
Represented by Engr. Olu Aladenusi, Head of Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standard department of NIMASA, the DG said: “While going through this workshop and the conduct of your appropriate inspections/ surveys after this workshop, I encourage you all to always demonstrate undiluted integrity and professionalism, avoid unreasonable compromise and encourage practical knowledge transfer and appropriate mentorship/succession planning within the marine surveying profession.”
Jamoh emphasised the importance of ensuring a positive image is created in the global view, while the surveyors undertake their duties, considering the collective mandate to promote safe, secure and reliable shipping.
Pledging the agency’s support in continual technical capacity development, Jamoh said: “I want to assure you that the Agency will continue to provide the necessary support you require to perform your duties effectively.”
He noted that the importance is in consonance with “the agency’s regulatory obligations in order to make the nation’s waterways safe and devoid of pollutants from vessels.”
The NIMASA DG sought the review for compliance with safety standards as well as the digitization of processes to promote sustainability, accountability and professionalism by ageing ships and offshore units within the nation’s waters.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Director Operations NIMASA, Mr. Shehu Ahmed, represented by Engr. Patrick Aigbe, Deputy Director Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standard department encouraged the marine surveyors to use their updated knowledge through the workshop, to ensure a robust and effective maritime safety regime in Nigeria.
“I hope that by the end of the technical sessions, we would have sufficiently updated our knowledge to effect vigorous and wholesome flag and port state regime to enable us effectively regulate offshore activities from FPSOs FSOs, and FSUs, especially those ageing within our coastal state,” he said.
According to the NIMASA ED, a very robust regulatory action by the Maritime Administration is important as “Nigeria accounts for a significant volume of domestic shipping activities and seaborne trade within the West African Region.”
Giving his own remarks, Engr. Aladenusi expressed hope that participating surveyors would gain new technical knowledge to support their implementation of their port and flag state duties.
Speaking on the importance of the workshop, the Register of Ships in NIMASA, Mrs. Nneka Obiano, said the entire training exercise targets improving on processes and to ensure that best practices are applied when it comes to ship survey.
She said: “The critical importance of survey of a vessel is that survey ensures a vessel has good integrity and that the vessel is seaworthy and able to operate in the waters domestically and internationally.
“So, when surveyors recommend a vessel for Flag registration, it means that they have done all the necessary inspections of the vessel to determine the seaworthiness.
“It means they have looked at the haul and the machinery of the vessel and then recommend such vessels for full Flag registration or renewal, because survey reports have about five years life span, and after five years the vessel goes for re-survey and recommendation for re-registration.”
Opening with ‘Re-assessment of survey checklist and quality of survey reports’, lectures for the workshop include ‘Indicators for assessing critical safety elements on ageing vessels’, ‘Digitalisation of safety administration and e-certification’, also compliance and catastrophe in ships and vessels.
