Steve Agbota
THE Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said that Nigeria is prepared to flag vessels in international trade.
Dakuku disclosed this at the Nigerian Ship Registry Interactive Forum with Shipowners in Lagos yesterday. He said the agency is working at building capacity and making sure Nigerians acquire high capacity vessels that would compete in cargo delivery to other world destinations.
However, he pointed out the need to grow the country’s fleet and input its footprints in international commercial trade, assuring the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessels Finance Fund (CVFF).
“Our desire is to have Nigerian flag vessels in international commercial trade and that is why we are making every effort to build capacity and ensure that Nigerians acquire high capacity vessels that will not only be involved in the lifting of our hydrocarbons but carry our cargoes to other parts of the world.
“As you are all aware, Nigeria operates a closed ship registry, however, most renowned ship registries in the world such as the UK Ship Register, today maintain a second or international register to attract tonnage whilst using the closed register to develop indigenous capacity and for domestic trade similar to our cabotage regime,”he added. He said the agency is considering establishing a second or international register to help grow the nation’s fleet and input Nigeria’s footprints in international commercial trade.
“In 2018/2019, we attracted into our register, two high index capacity vessels – “Egina FPSO” and “MT Ultimate. We have no doubt that a lot more can be done to assist Nigerians in acquiring vessels and that is why we are making effort to disburse the Cabotage Vessels Finance Fund (CVFF).”
Dakuku noted that the agency had internally began to take constructive steps in the ship registry like an audit of register of Nigerian vessels, redesign and production of new ship registry certificates, automation of the ship registry, upgrade of the ship registry filing facility, review of ship registration guidelines and ISO 9001:2015 certification. “A comprehensive audit of Register of Nigerian vessels was carried out in 2018/19 to ensure that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Ship Identification Number scheme outlined in IMO Resolution A.