Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Chairman of the Governing Council of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Akwa Ibom State, Prince Demola Seriki, has said that the statutory five percent of the earnings of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, that is due to the Academy should be calculated on the gross earnings and not net earnings as currently being done.
Seriki who spoke to a group of Journalists after its 7th Council meeting in Lagos called for an audit of NIMASA’s earnings over the years and calculate what is due to the Academy.
He said that NIMASA cannot be giving the Academy what he called “peanuts”, adding that the institution cannot survive on the what it currently gets from NIMASA.
He said: “I have issue with NIMASA’s five percent that is due to us, the said five percent is supposed to be calculated on the gross revenue and not net revenue.
“In its gross revenue, NIMASA cannot just claim it made so, so amount of money and so, so amount is five percent; in other words, an audit must be carried out to ensure that these monies are reported sufficiently and accurately, and then we can have our five percent.
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“Again, the academy cannot survive on the five percent it is getting from NIMASA; that is why we are looking at other sources of funding from institutions like Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas Company, NLNG, and the International Oil Companies, IOCs, under the aegies Oil Producers Trade Sector, OPTS, to augment what we are getting from NIMASA.
“If we are able to get assistance from the OPTS and achieve our objective of putting the Academy on the international maritime map, it will be well reputed to compete with any world acclaimed maritime training institution.
We cannot oversight NIMASA; the National Assembly is the only window to do that and tell us what we are due and let five percent be five percent.”
