By Okey IBEKE
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| Dr Dakuku Peterside |
If reform actually means to improve something by removing or correcting faults, problems, and hindrances, then going by what he has done for Nigeria’s maritime sector, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), truly fits into the description of a reformer. He is indeed a reformer of Nigeria’s maritime industry, having removed and corrected the faults and problems that have overtime stunted the growth and development of the sector, thereby improving its overall condition.
Dr. Peterside came to the nation’s apex maritime regulatory agency, NIMASA, in 2015, with a remarkable sense of mission. After three years and ten months in office as director-general of the agency, a lot have changed in the maritime sector, as a result of new ways of doing things which have evolved in NIMASA and the way the agency has been positioned to carry out its core mandates as stipulated in its enabling act.
In line with the focus of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which is based on new ways of doing things and economic diversification, NIMASA under Dakuku Peterside has implemented strategic initiatives through its medium term strategy. The results of these initiatives have become too glaring to be ignored.
SHIPPING DEVELOPMENT
One of the core mandates of NIMASA is the development of indigenous shipping capacity. The agency was ostensibly set up to facilitate the participation of Nigerians in sea-borne trade. This core mandate had largely been glossed over by previous administrations of the defunct National Maritime Authority (NMA) from where NIMASA metamorphosed and also the previous administrations of NIMASA. The result has been dissatisfaction by indigenous shipping operators and domination of Nigeria’s shipping space by foreigners.
But within the period Dakuku has been on the saddle at NIMASA, there has been remarkable improvement in the development of indigenous shipping capacity.
Last year, the agency facilitated the participation of indigenous operators at international maritime expos and trade fairs with the view to creating the much needed link between the local shipping operators and their foreign counterparts. This move has created opportunities for indigenous operators to turn dreams to realities, as it has paired the operators with foreign partners for various international engagements.
Currently, NIMASA is creating a portal on its website where the list of all categories of maritime operators and services provided would be hosted for match-making and direct contact by business interests around the world. This brings visibility and credibility to indigenous operators.
Recognizing that state governments, even naturally endowed ones have not been active participants in the nation’s maritime sector, and as such have not been exploiting their maritime potentials, NIMASA under Dakuku had engaged and secured the buy-in of some state governments into the public sector cargo support initiative of the agency, while extending engagements on maritime with other state governors.
Over the years, the shoddy implementation of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003, which came into force in 2004, had attracted constant criticisms for NIMASA from local operators and maritime observers. The local capacity-building law which is meant to empower Nigerians to take control of the nation’s coastal and inland trade and overall greater participation in maritime trade had failed to live up to expectation.
In an attempt to arrest the situation, NIMASA under Dr. Peterside, has come up with a five-year strategic plan, beginning 2021, to end in stages the grant of Cabotage waiver which has been one of the provisions of the Act that have been working against the interest of Nigerian operators. With the plan, NIMASA seeks to achieve the key objectives of the Cabotage Act in terms of in-country construction, ownership, manning, and flagging of ships engaged in Cobotage trade by 2024 without major disruptions to the Cabotage trade. This process has already begun, with NIMASA carrying the stakeholders along with a series of engagements.
As part of efforts to enhance local capacity, NIMASA has also adopted a strategy of encouraging Nigerians to go into joint ventures and joint ownership of vessels with foreign operators on a 60-40 basis. The result of this initiative has been very swift as about 20 new vessels are currently flying the Nigerian flag as against one in 2018. Bareboat charter of vessels has also witnessed an increase, while foreign-owned vessels on Nigeria’s Cabotage register has declined.
Too obvious to ignore is the increase in the number of wholly-owned Nigerian vessels on the Nigerian Cabotage register. According to the 2018 half year result, 125 vessels were registered, representing a 33 per cent increase when compared with the 94 registered in the corresponding period in 2017. Currently, there are more than 200 vessels captured in the Cabotage register- a feat that has been unprecedented since the inception of NIMASA.
Similarly, at the moment, about 68 per cent of vessels trading within the country’s coastal waters are Nigerian-flagged. This effectively reduces the number of foreign-owned ships engaged in Nigeria’s Cabotage trade, and consequently dousing the cry of indigenous operators of foreign domination of the nation’s Cabotage trade.
It is worthy of commendation how NIMASA under Dakuku Peterside has been working with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in the capacity building and cabotage waiver cessation strategy. NCDMB is a critical government agency that has the mandate to build local capacity in the oil and gas sector in line with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act. The cooperation between NIMASA and NCDMB has led to both agencies achieving the categorization of vessels for uniformity and harmonized enforcement. The collaboration has also helped in the conduct of capacity audit of existing shipyards and maritime training institutions in the country.
IMPROVED SERVICE DELIVERY
In the last three years, NIMASA has leveraged so much on ICT to improve its overall service delivery. The agency’s introduction of the Final Billing System has put to rest the issues of double billing, protracted billing and over/under billing in its statutory revenue collection. This is made possible by the creation of a platform for dispute resolution, a system that ensures appropriate closure on all vessel transactions within a period of two weeks after departure. This has led to improved customer satisfaction and elimination of complaints by ship owners.
As observed by Dakuku, before the Final Billing System introduced by his administration, it took between five and 10 years to reconcile bills in relation to the three per cent freight charge on vessels coming into the country. With this tardy system, such vessels were always on NIMASA’s books as owing or having bills to reconcile.
“But with the Final Billing System, we have put an end to double billing, over-billing, and protracted billing. The system ensures closure of all vessel billing transactions within two weeks after departure. This has led to improved customer satisfaction.”
NIMASA has also made giant strides in the drive for improved maritime domain awareness. With the use of satellite surveillance technologies, in combination with intelligence systems, the agency is now able to identify, with a consistent 365 days and a five-year profile, all vessels that visit Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Interestingly, the agency can now identify vessels that are believed to be engaging in suspicious activities in order to take appropriate actions.
MARITIME SECURITY
Another area that NIMASA, under Dakuku Peterside, has scored high mark in the estimation of all stakeholders is maritime security. In fact, whenever the story of taming the pirates and criminals that had been terrorizing Nigeria’s territorial waters is told, Dakuku Peterside will certainly occupy a pride of place.
Maritime security is one of the core mandates of NIMASA that had been haphazardly and inefficiently executed over the years, with the result that the activities of criminals on the nation’s waters remained a major threat to the survival of the maritime sector.
Distressed by this state of affairs, Dakuku has led NIMASA to spearhead plans and actions aimed at stemming the ugly trend. With close collaboration with the Ministries of Transportation, Defence, the Nigerian Navy and other relevant security agencies, NIMASA has adopted a multidimensional approach to tackle the menace. This multidimensional strategy has seen the conception of a the Deep Blue Project as part of Total Spectrum Maritime Security, which includes law enforcement, regional cooperation, response capabilities building, and enhanced maritime domain awareness for all organs of government responsible for maritime security.
The execution of the Deep Blue Project in which Nigeria seeks to acquire response capabilities to security threats on her waters has reached advanced stage. The project is being handled by HLSI (Homeland Security International), an Israeli firm. The security outfit was contracted to help in the training of personnel and procurement of the necessary hardware.
These hardware assets comprise intervention platforms which include land, air and maritime assets. “The maritime assets include two Special Mission Vessels, 17 fast Interceptor boats, five inflatable training boats and two spares. The air assets include two special mission aircraft, three helicopters and four unmanned aerial vehicles, while the land assets include 16 armoured vehicles.”
Already NIMASA has received the Special Mission Vessels 1and 2 which arrived a fortnight ago, and 10 fast interceptor boats. The remaining seven fast interceptor boats are expected before the end of 2020. The 2 Special Mission Vessels that arrived two weeks ago, each has combined engine capacity of 9OOHP and could do up to 55knots.For the land assets, six armoured vehicles for land intervention troops had also arrived and the remaining ten were being expected. According to the agency, the pre-shipment inspection of the special mission aircraft, helicopters and the unmanned aerial vehicle would be due this month end.
These expected assets and the ones that have arrived have greatly boosted the morale of NIMASA and the navy in the battle against piracy and maritime crimes, as well the confidence of the entire world shipping community. The latest arrivals, the SMVs, DB Lagos and DB Abuja, are said to be equipped with sophisticated intelligence gathering capability for timely detection and response to illegal activities in the nation’s maritime domain.
Apart front amassing the necessary weapons for the physical battle on the waters, NIMASA has put everything in place to deal with the problem piracy and maritime crimes on the legal front. Last week, the agency sought to sensitize and galvanize the judicial sector operators on the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, 2019. In collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), NIMASA put together the annual Strategic Admiralty Law for Judges, with the theme: “Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences SPOMO Act, 2019: Key to Accelerating and Achieving Safe and Secure Shipping in Nigeria.”
NIMASA had fought for the promulgation of the SPOMO Act for years. The Act was signed into law by President Buhari in June last year, and for the first time makes piracy a crime in Nigeria. It prescribes jail terms of between 15 years and life imprisonment, and fines from N50 million to N500 million for individuals and corporate organizations convicted for maritime offences in the country.
Specifically, the law aims to tackle the menace of piracy and armed robbery on the country’s waters and exclusive economic zone, with a strong and specific legal instrument that prescribes punishment for offenders and deters criminal elements. It is the first independent anti-piracy law in the Gulf of Guinea region.
On the Gulf of Guinea which Nigeria is an integral part, NIMASA under Dakuku, has played a leading role in bringing African leaders together at various times to brainstorm and find a lasting solution to the security challenges in the GoG. This has given birth to the 2050 African Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS) and its Plan of Action, including a roadmap for the incremental implementation of the strategy in line with international maritime law. This is in addition to the Yaoundé Code of Conduct, the Djibouti Code of Conduct, and the Lome Charter, among other strategies.
Specifically, Nigeria’s regional interventions and collaboration in addressing maritime insecurity in Gulf of Guinea has led to the
· Establishment and implementation of the ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy (EIMS).
·Establishment of Inter-Regional Coordination Centre in Yaoundé, Cameroun, an initiative of ECOWAS/ECCAS/GoG Commission.
· Leadership role in the establishment and implementation of Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS).
· Headship of the Association of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA), which is at the forefront of coordination of continental initiatives of African heads of government to tackle maritime insecurity.
Talking about NIMASA’s achievements in maritime security in the last one year cannot be complete without the mention of the Global Maritime Security Conference which Nigeria hosted in Abuja last October. The conference was such a success in achieving its aims and objectives that the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Kitack Lim, lauded the conference as the most successful maritime security conference the world had seen in the last decade. Lim also described Nigeria as the most improved maritime administration since his tenure as Secretary General of IMO.
MARITIME SAFETY
The new ways of doing things which Dakuku Peterside introduced in NIMASA have also been felt in the area of maritime safety. This is such that Nigeria has been adjudged the most outstanding in Port and Flag State Control in the West and Central Africa Sub-Region by the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The report also noted that the country had the highest port state inspection; increased Certificate of Competency examinations; inauguration of Search and Rescue volunteers in 10 coastal states; development and implementation of Biometric data for non-conventional vessels and small boats; and automation of the process for issuance of Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) and call Sign.
Other areas that have received Dakuku’s touch of reforms include the maritime labour –employment and capacity development of seafarers and dockworkers. Last year NIMASA facilitated the conclusion of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and its endorsement by the Tripartite Parties under the National Joint Industrial Council for Seafarers and Dockworkers (NJIC).
With this, NIMASA, in conjunction with the tripartite stakeholders (Employers and Employees), successfully completed the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports on Maritime Labour Conventions (MLC, 2006 and Dockwork Convention, 1973). Nigeria's approach and model of reports have been commended by ILO and recommended for use by other member states of the ILO.
MARINE AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
NIMASA has in recent time been doing a lot in the area of managing and maintaining the country’s marine environment having engaged the services of marine litter marshals. Notably, the agency’s Marine Environment Management Department successfully developed a portal and installed a software for tracking of dangerous goods in Nigeria in fulfillment of chapter 7 of the SOLAS Convention and Annexes 2 and 3 of MARPOL Convention.
The department is also currently remodeling the Marine Pollution Laboratory to an internationally accepted modern. This will take care of the laboratory analysis aspects of the relevant IMO Marine Environment Conventions (such as the Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Cooperation (IOPC) Ballast Water Convention, Anti-Fouling Systems (AFS) when completed.
ISPS CODE IMPLEMENTATION
With Dr. Dakuku Peterside, NIMASA has performed creditably well as the Designated Authority (DA) for the ISPS Code in Nigeria. Following the appointment in 2006, after PICOMMS had failed to make any impact after seven years of being in charge, NIMASA took over and has been performing satisfactorily in this area. The appointment of Dakuku has further taken the achievements in this area a notch higher as NIMASA has worked in line with and satisfied all the recommendations of the ISPS code. The result is the exemption of over 20 Nigerian port facilities from imposition of United States Coast Guard (USCG) special Conditions of Entry (CoE) on vessels that had called at the facilities.
Indeed, there are other areas that Dakuku’s reforms have touched in NIMASA which are too many to enumerate. He has restored the agency’s consciousness of its mandate in the maritime sector, as a result of which the sector is now positioned to play its expected role in the nation’s economy.
Okey IBEKE is the Editor-Chief, Business and Maritime West Africa
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