Nigeria is targeting a world class ship registry - Dakuku

Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside in a handshake with Mr. Magnus Ibe of Bourbon Nigeria Limited while Emeka Ndu and Engr. Emmanuel Ilori look on during the submission of the of the report of the Committee on review of the Nigeria Ship Registration Office in Lagos

Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has received the report of the committee on the review of the Nigerian Ship Registry, with a declaration that the Agency’s target is to have a world-class ship registry. Dakuku said the goal was for Nigeria to have a ship registry that will meet international certification standards and compete favourably with the best in the global maritime community.

Dakuku spoke yesterday in Lagos, while receiving the report of the committee tasked with reviewing the activities and operations of the Nigerian Ship Registration Office.

“NIMASA is working at giving Nigerians a Ship Registry that is respected across the globe and that will be attractive to ship-owners, so they can fly the Nigerian Flag. In no distant future, our ship registry will be more effective, more efficient and responsive to change, thus, meeting international standards for certification,” he said.

The Director-General noted that the Agency had already commenced the process of automating the Nigerian Ship Registry. He said from the preliminary report earlier submitted to the Agency, the diligent implementation of the findings of the committee would have a beneficial effect on the Nigerian maritime sector.

According to him, “We are putting in place the necessary building blocks for Nigeria to be the first African country to achieve a five star International Standards Certification by 2020. International standard certification for ship registration is our goal at NIMASA.”

Speaking just before submitting the report, the committee chairman, Engr. Emmanuel Ilori, stated that ship registration and the effectiveness of the established processes in a country's maritime sector operations were critical in determining the health of a national maritime administration.

Ilori stated, “All the committee's efforts were geared towards making the Nigerian flag globally acceptable. The committee carried out an extensive review of the Nigerian Ship Registry, took cognizance of stakeholders’ opinions and expectations, and carried out comparative analysis of the ship registration processes of some Global Registries in arriving at the report. “NIMASA Management should consider and implement submissions contained in the report.”

The terms of reference of the nine-man committee, which was set up in February 2018, included to examine the status of the ship registry in line with international best practices and advise and recommend requisite improvements of necessity in the registry.

The committee was inaugurated on February 27, 2018 to establish a strategy to revamp the Nigerian ship registration process in order to raise the profile of the Nigerian flag in the global maritime space.