Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Management of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has put up its floating dry dock for auction and scrapping, a development which has made the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to enter into a partnership with the Authority to manage NIMASA’s floating dock.
Speaking, the Managing Director of the NPA, Hadiz Bala Usman, said that it was going into the partnership with NIMASA, adding, however, that it must first wind up its agreement with its technical partners, Continental Shipyard Limited, CSL, over the dry dock.
Usman said that NPA’s agreement with CSL expired in 2018 noting that it was in the process of winding up its agreement with the partners.
She explained that its floating dock has been abandoned and balkanized over the years and as such the floating dock cannot be salvaged.
Usman stated: “We have a partnership with Continental Shipyard Limited (CSL) that expired in 2008; that partnership was why the floating dock was domiciled in CSL.
“The floating duck has been balkanized and has been abandoned over the years and we have commissioned an agent to come and do a conditional survey
“The report of the agent indicates that the floating duck cannot be salvaged, so we are working towards a process of auctioning what is left of that balkanized floating duck.
“Nevertheless, we recognize that duck yard operations are key for the maritime sector to grow and I will like to call on stakeholders to come in and design what need to be done for the Nigerian nation to explore and gain the benefits of dry-ducking vessels calls at the Nigerian ports.
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“On our side we are giving the necessary waivers on vessels that are going for dry duck and that has increased the utilization of duck yards in Nigeria.
“If all vessels calling in Nigeria are mandated to dry ducking it will tremendously change the landscape of the maritime domain”.
On NPA’s proposed partnership with NIMASA, Usman said that both organizations were looking at the available options.
She said for NPA to partner with NIMASA, the Authority has to exit its agreement with Continental Shipyard adding that the agency was in the process of winding down that agreement and putting in place all the necessary mechanism to officially exit that joint venture before concluding the partnership with NIMASA.
Confirming the arrangement the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, said that arrangements have been concluded with the NPA to relocate its floating dry dock to the Continental Shipyard for proper use of the facility.
Jamoh also disclosed that it has gone into a Memorandum of Understanding with operators in the Oil and Gas sector on the repairs and dry-docking of their vessels in Nigeria.
He also said the agency intend to engage a managing partner to profitable running of the floating dock adding that the management of the asset will be on Public-Private-Partnership, PPP, basis.
