Kunle Kalejaye 14 January 2015, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, is planning for 90 percent of Nigeria’s port facilities meet the International Ship and Port Facility Security, ISPS, code compliance before the end of this year.
The maritime agency said the 90 percent compliance would be achieved through continuous Verification Inspection Exercise, VIE, of port facilities in order to maintain implementation pace and focus on continuous improvement.
Director General of NIMASA, Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi, who dropped this hint in Lagos recently explained that the agency had introduced a full-fledged unit to drive and pilot the code implementation.
The director general added that the agency has adopted the ISPS code regulation, developed guidelines and quick reference cards to enhance assessment, inspection enforcement and monitoring inspection on a regular basis to ensure continuous improvement.
He stated that as a result of a vigorous pursuit of the ISPS code compliance, “over 38 percent of 129 port facilities in the country have fully complied.
“This comprises of all the major ports in the country. This is a great improvement from the less than seven percent compliance level before the appointment of NIMASA as the Designated Authority, DA, in 2013.
The NIMASA boss further explained that the agency had been able to gradually increase its Port State Control Performance in the last 12 months due to an increase in the agency’s manpower capacity and availability of vessels for operation.
He said: “I am delighted to inform you that the Secretary General of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, on Port State Control recently commended NIMASA for being the foremost Port State Control Administration in the West and Central African Sub-Region just like other leading maritime stakeholders have commended NIMASA.”
