Vincent Toritseju
06 March 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside has said that no nation can attain sustainable growth and development relying on herself or a single source of revenue as world economies are now consciously or unconsciously competing among themselves in terms of advancement and development of their economies.
Speaking in Lagos during the visit of a delegation of Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, a leading educational institution of the German armed forces, Hamburg, Germany, Peterside said that no nation can ever be self-sufficient and that needs would always arise for countries to meet through trade. He noted that while no two nations can engage in trade without recourse to maritime, adding that trade facilitation between nations can only be guaranteed if the maritime domains of the associated nations are safe and secure- with the human asset, technology, ideas and intellectuality as key drivers.
He said “Technology and globalization will continue to amaze us, just as Ideas, knowledge, and intellectuality are complementary drivers of advancement in our today’s world.
“No individual or nation has a monopoly of knowledge. So cross-fertilization of knowledge in critical sub-sectors of nations’ economies, particularly in areas of comparative advantage is sacrosanct for growth and development, towards the overall objective of advancing world peace”
“Human capacity, maritime safety, and security-related crimes were the biggest challenges we had. They have been addressed and we would continue to address it in totality.
“We have the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), which is an initiative designed to train Nigerian youths in various maritime professionalism. Currently, they are being trained in various countries around the globe. While some of them have graduated as full-fledged professionals, some are still undergoing the necessary training.
“We are partnering with maritime giants around the world to develop our Seafarers. For safety and security, we are collaborating with the Nigerian Military and the Police to ensure that”.
Similarly, the leader of the delegation, Dr. Thortsen Schutz, informed NIMASA that they were at the Agency on a working visit, with the objectives: to ascertain facts that would aid trade facilitation between Nigeria and Germany; as well as learn new ideas from NIMASA, as regards Africa’s experience, because of the peculiarities of the continent.
Schutz noted that NIMASA is strategic in the shipping scheme between Nigeria and Germany and that it was necessary for the Commercial and Defence Attachés in Germany Embassy in Nigeria to understand the shipping as well as the maritime ideals and dynamics within the context of the Agency’s operations, for ease of trade engagements.
“We are here to understand NIMASA. We know your importance. And we are encouraged by your disposition towards ensuring a safe and secure maritime environment for shipping. You are strategic when it comes to trading in Africa. Be assured that we would encourage our people to come to Nigeria because we know that Nigeria has a lot of maritime potentials. We are ready to collaborate and also partner with NIMASA in the areas of technology, idea, and knowledge sharing because the world is fast drifting to knowledge and idea base”, he said.