By Isaac Anumihe
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has begun full implementation of the Cabotage Act, 2003 through the New Cabotage Compliance Strategy (NCCS).
Making this known at the weekend, the Lagos State Co-ordinator, Captain Taiwo Akinpelumi of Nigerian Ship owners Association (NISA) commended NIMASA for the step, saying that NISA as a body shares in the vision of the regulatory body to reposition the maritime sector for greater efficiency and productivity. He called for continuous partnership so that as professionals they can bring to the table their expertise in assisting NIMASA realise its full mandate.
“Ship owners are the essence of NIMASA. Without ship owners there will be no NIMASA and without NIMASA, there will be no ship owners. So, we have a reason to interact even a lot more than we are doing and that is why we are here”, Captain Taiwo stated.
Accordingly, he stated that the body will always work together with the agency. “NIMASA is there for us and we are there for NIMASA. We are the two wings of the bird because no bird can fly with only one wing”, he averred.
In his remarks, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, extolled the role of ship owners to the maritime sector, describing them as key players to the sustenance and survival of the Nigerian maritime sector.
He further described NISA as a set of knowledgeable experts whose wealth of experience will be needed in helping the agency realise its mandates with respect to Cabotage implementation as enshrined in the NIMASA Act.
Accordingly, the DG stated that the agency will give the necessary support to the association and will continue to engage fruitful collaborative meetings, geared towards realising a virile maritime industry.
He also assured the body that aside from cabotage, the agency will look at areas of having exclusivity for Nigerian ship owners such as lighterage and that it is poised to put mechanisms in place to ensure that it works.
“We will look at the MoU we had with NISA many years ago and review it and look at the possibility of revisiting it. We are pushing it back to you as a task and we believe that you will come with very useful suggestions on the way forward”, the DG said.