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Nigeria restates commitment to safety standards in maritime

L-R:
Nigeria’s Alternate Permanent Representative to the International Maritime
Organisation, Mr Dikko Bala; Head, Africa Section, Technical Cooperation
Division, IMO, Mr Williams Azu; Hon. Minister of Transportation and Vice
Chairman, Abuja MoU, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, (CFR) Secretary General, Abuja
MoU, Mrs Mfon Ekong Usoro and the Ag Director General of NIMASA, Mr Haruna Baba Jauro at
the opening ceremony of the Regional Training Course on Port State Control, in Lagos
 
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi has restated
Nigeria’s commitment to ensure safety standards in the nation’s maritime
sector.

The Minster who stated this in his address at the
regional training on Ports State Control (PSC) for West and Central Africa in
Lagos, said that because merchant ships often traded outside the areas that
under the jurisdiction of the Flag State, maritime agencies cannot therefore
guarantee that all ships under their flag are in full compliance with safety
requirements.
Accordingly, the International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) mandates maritime administrations to periodically carryout port state
control in compliance with the instruments to which the Flag State is a party.
 Amaechi said
that the high level of maritime activities in the waters impose enormous
challenges to coastal countries in the West and Central Africa in terms of
building a robust and effective maritime safety regime.
According to him, the need to therefore continually
update the knowledge of vessel inspectors and surveyors cannot be overstated
especially against the backdrop of rapid changes at both the industry and
operating environment levels.
He reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government
to repositioning the maritime sector for effectiveness and efficiency and also
assured member states of Nigeria’s co-operation for a better Port State Control
implementation in Africa.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Acting Director
General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr
Haruna Baba Jauro, while assuring member states of the Agency’s resolve for the
effective implementation of Ports State Control in the sector, said NIMASA remained
committed to human capacity development and that the training would be a
continuous process geared towards the development of the sector and the nation
at large.
“The Agency will continue to build the required
capacity to meet domestic and international obligations aimed at making our
waterways safe for shipping activities” the Acting DG said.
It will be recalled that the NIMASA Act empowers the Agency
to carryout occasional ports state inspection on foreign vessels that call at
the nation’s ports.

The eight day training which is being hosted by NIMASA
has in attendance representatives from the 19 member states of the Abuja MoU
with resource persons drawn from the International Maritime Organisation.
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