The director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has assured that NIMASA’s commitment to automation is to reduce human interface and plug revenue leakages in the system.
Jamoh disclosed this during the meeting of government agencies under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), at the 4th heads of maritime agencies’ meeting in Lagos.
He said the automation process has exceeded 80 per cent to achieve the National Single Window regime in the transportation sector.
“In line with the Federal Government’s Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business, we are committed to full automation to attain reduction of human interface in the majority of our transactions with our stakeholders. This is in our bid to ensure transparency and professionalism which the sector requires to grow. The goal is to align with the National Single Window initiative when all the internal processes of the various agencies have been concluded.”
Commenting on the high freight rate occasioned by the War Risk Insurance placed on Nigeria-bound vessels, the NIMASA helmsman stated that the agency would focus on creating awareness and lobbying the international community for a review. This move is related to the removal of Nigeria from the global piracy list.
“It may interest you to know that, by the end of this quarter [which is the end of June], we would have recorded another milestone as we are yet to record a single attack or incident of maritime insecurity on our waters. Therefore, we will keep advocating for the total removal of War Risk Insurance by the international community, so that Nigerians can benefit from that.
“It may be recalled that the maiden edition of the meeting was in 2020, to enhance synergy and cooperation of parastatals under the supervision of the FMOT, which is intended for a more effective and efficient maritime sector,” he said.
Addressing the press after the meeting, the Registrar of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and chairman of the meeting, Barr. Sam Nwakohu, disclosed that full automation of the internal processes of the various agencies represented is a pre-requisite to achieving the much-anticipated National Single Window regime in the sector.
“The chief executive officers (CEOs) of the various agencies have agreed on timelines to achieve full automation of internal processes. We have agreed that all agencies under the Ministry of Transportation attain full automation. This process will be well-coordinated and we also gave ourselves timelines to achieve this.”
The meeting also had in attendance the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Mohammed Bello Koko, executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Emmanuel Jime, managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu; Managing director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Fidet Okhiria; Rector, Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Commodore Emmanuel Duja Effedua and the director-general, Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, Mr. Bayero Salih-Farah Zaria.
