VISIONARY (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside Speaks Of Ambition Of Nimasa Being The Leading Maritime Administration in Africa

The leadership guru, Jack Welch once said of Vision that “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion

Such  can easily be said of the  Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside,  is very positive about the  agency’s floating dockyard expected to  save the country N36 billion annually and subsequently make her the leading Maritime Administration in Africa, it

Peterside, the NIMASA chief pilot said he was determined to advance the nation’s global maritime goals and promote its rapid economic development.

NIMASA, he said, would achieve a robust and business friendly maritime domain to make the country a hub of maritime activities in the West and Central Africa.

Hear him “It is remarkable to note that the past. Three years have been very eventful for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

“After appointment of the new Executive Management of the Agency, the team understood the critical need for overall reform in the Agency to break away from the old ways of doing things and conform to the mantra of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhori (GCFR), which required a new and purposeful start for Nigeria in all sectors of our national economy.

“Beginning with a quick Strategic: Implementation Plan (SIP), in alignment with the programme of the Federal Government, the NIMASA Executive Management has initiated series of management performance briefings and critical reform intervention sessions, where the priority actions to put the Agency on o path of sustainable growth to impact the maritime industry as well as promote and ensure overall development of the sector were taken.

“In order to remain focused on our mandates, the Agency in its entirety adopted a new VISION, MISSION and CORE VALUES, which is to serve as a compass towards realizing our goals of making Nigerian maritime sector a hub in Africa.

Some of the core values of NIMASA as identified by Peterside include commitment to make the agency the best in Africa, promoting accountability, professionalism, integrity ,teamwork, excellence , leadership qualities and discipline among the staff, operators and stakeholders working with the agency.

To enforce compliance and promote maritime domain awareness, Peterside said, NIMASA, had in the test six months, and captured a total of 1,685 tanker ships operating on the nation’s territorial waters through its Satellite Surveillance System.

“Of these operations, 284 were carried out at the anchorage area through lightering. Effectively, through surveillance guided enforcement operations, the 284 tankers that were lightened at the anchorage were hindered from participating in Cobotoge Operations.

“This has impacted positively on Cobotoge trade creating room for more local participation. This was not the case in, 2017 when we could not separate between anchorage... operations and Cobotoge trade with high likelihood of 532 international vessels proceeding on Cobotoge trode otter lightering operations at the anchorage, he said.

NIMASA, findings revealed, has been able to establish a satellite surveillance control and command center that has coverage of up to 312 nautical miles from coast line (approximately 100 nautical miles off our EEZ).

The system, it was learnt, can detect vessels with AIS transponders switched off as a synthetic aperture raider (SAR images which can be interrogated) immediately by near point of sight patrol / enforcement boots.

“The Agency secured the reactivation of the maritime domain awareness capability. This has enabled effective enforcement of regulations. Our surveillance system enables us to ensure the preservation of Sabotage trade for indigenous operators by “identifying and differentiating Ship-To-Ship (STS) operations that take place at the secured anchorage and offshore locations from Cobotoge trade to avoid foreign domination in Cobotoge trade under the guise of STS,” Peterside said.