Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) says it contributed N37.69billion into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government in 2021.
Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh who disclosed this in Lagos on Friday at a media parley to review the agency’s activities in the outgone year said the amount is against N31.83billion remitted to the CRF in 2020, representing an increase of over N6billion.
“In 2020, the agency tripled the efforts she has been making in terms of contribution to the consolidated revenue account by paying N31,839,917,978.20k. Despite the pandemic, we also went ahead to increase the amount we paid to the Federal Government in 2021 with a total amount of N37,691,630, 450.22k,” he said.
Jamoh said NIMASA was striving to strengthen its maritime safety and security enforcement mechanism, while enhancing revenue collection for increased contribution to the consolidated revenue fund.
Speaking on the controversial N50billion floating dock, which has been lying idle since June 11, 2018, Jamoh assured that it would be operational before the end of the first quarter of 2022, noting that plans are in place for the privatisation of the floating dock, which will be handled through a Public-Private Partnership arrangement.
According to him, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) gave NIMASA the approval to privatise the floating dock owing to the fact that it is bankable, doable and profitable.
“We do not intend for NIMASA or the government to operate the floating dock. We have handed over the floating dock over to a public-private partnership. The issue of privatization of any government property is not a product but a process.
“We have been undergoing this process. The Director General of the ICRC was here to give us the first certificate, telling us that privatising the modular floating dock is bankable, doable and profitable. We have gone ahead to do negotiations with the Managing partner and the co-partner, that is the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), that they are going to provide us with continental shipyard.
“As we speak, some of our officials are in Dubai to inspect the facilities of the managing partner and we expect that in no distant time, maximum by the middle of February, we should be able to get the final no-objection,” he said.
The NIMASA DG stressed that the cost implication cannot be borne by the government alone noting that when the floating dock is privatised, the managing partners can decide and move it to the proper position it should be to aid its operations.
Speaking on some of the successes recorded by the agency in terms of flag state control which has to do with survey and inspection of vessels in accordance with the safety requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act 2007, Jamoh said 489 vessels were surveyed in 2021 which is 43.6 percent higher than the total number of condition survey carried out in 2020 at 276 vessels.
He said that this is an indication of the maritime administration’s seriousness in terms of flag state survey.
For the port state control functions of NIMASA, he said 429 foreign vessels were boarded to ensure that each vessel-maintained safety, pollution standards while at our ports and waters.
He said the 2021 figure as recorded was 675 vessels which is 24.2 % higher than the number of inspections carried out in 2020 of 510 vessels.
On the delay in the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) which is estimated at over N136billion, the NIMASA DG admitted that there are political and technical issues hindering the disbursement of the fund but assured that the agency would ensure that all the issues are resolved before the end of the year.
“There are some political and technical issues attached to the issue of disbursement but I believe we will overcome it. The technical issues are from the CVFF guidelines and the act itself. Since 2003 till date, there has been a lot of development. So, a lot of things have transformed the laws of CVFF and the guidelines and made a lot of technicalities involved. In the area of politics, in everything we do and everywhere we go, there is politics but that does not mean you can’t survive. So let us not put sentiment in the disbursement of the fund,” he said.
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