How Bashir Jamoh Takes NIMASA To A Greater Stride Within Two Years

By Oghenekevwe Laba

LAGOS MARCH 7TH (NEWSRANGERS)-In his valedictory speech, the immediate past Director General Of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside, while handling over to the incumbent DG of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh   said having ended his tenure, he could not wish for a better person to take over from him than Jamoh, whom he described as a man with vast “institutional knowledge” of the industry.

After two years in office, the description of Dr Bashir Jamoh as man with vast ‘Institutional Knowledge’ of the industry by Dr Dakuku Peterside  manifested as he turned NIMASA around with greater stride.

Dr Bashir Jamoh took over as head of NIMASA when the Gulf of Guinea waters was becoming notorious for incessant pirate attacks and abductions.  Settling down in office, he quickly got to terms with the realities of the task ahead of him and within a short period, drew applauses from critical maritime stakeholders, including the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on his early feats in office, which include the unprecedented arrest of suspected maritime pirates and their onward prosecution under the new anti-piracy law, the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act signed into law in June 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In attempt to entrench coordinated response to piracy and other criminalities on the Nigerian waters, prompt reportage and escalation of marine incidences to where action is most expected and to provide navigational advisory to mariners, Jamoh set up The Maritime  Security & Intelligence Unit for  intelligence and information gathering and sharing that can help to abort piracy.

He collaborated with Security Agencies at the strategic level to ensure a close liaison with the offices of the NSA , CNS, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Army Staff and the IGP. His action no doubt played  a pivotal role in the institutionalization of the collaboration between NIMASA and other government agencies for improved maritime security and safety. Thus, his proactive approach towards combating of  insecurity resulted in dropping of piracy incidents by 58 percent from 81 in 2020 to 34 in 2021 as shown in statistic  released by the International Maritime Bureau, IMB.

The Executive Management of NIMASA  under Dr Bashir Jamoh recognized from the outset the significant impact of the Corona Virus (COVID-19) Pandemic on the Transport sector in particular and the Global socio-economic activities in general, hence he set up a multi-disciplinary Committee within the Agency to provide an informed risk assessment with appropriate responses.

NIMASA under Jamoh  provided corporate Social Responsibility support to Federal and State government through  
cash donations of N30 Million Naira to the Federal Government Committee on COVID-19 Intervention
 and  N20m cash donation to the Lagos State COVID-19 Intervention Task Force

It equally provided human capital/personnel support in Medical Personnel, Drivers
, Logistic officers and deployment of the Agency’s Fire brigade trucks to fumigate Apapa and its environs.

A major intervention of the Agency in ensuring the continued flow of trade was the declaration of Seafarers as KEY WORKERS to facilitate vital crew changes and excuse duty. Nigeria was among the first maritime nations to declare such and was commended by the IMO. Kudos to Bashir Jamoh intervention.

As for capacity building, the Agency under Jamoh  had trained over 2,600 Nigerian Seafarers in various credible maritime institutions UK, Egypt, Philippine, Malaysia, etc. Recently, the Agency secured the placement of over 400 cadets onboard ships for the mandatory SEA-TIME training to make them globally competitive and employable. The Agency equally sent some of its staff on long term training abroad to build internal capacities in various aspects of the maritime industry at the prestigious World Maritime University.

On indigenous shipping capacity, NIMASA under Jamoh procurement  the 5th largest modular floating dockyard in Africa to reduce the cost of ship repairs and maintenance. This milestone achievement came under a unique Fund known as the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), designed to provide financial assistance to Nigerian Operators in domestic coastal shipping to own vessels and enhance their competitiveness.

The Agency  continued its engagement with the MDAs to entrench an appropriate fiscal and monetary policy initiatives to pave way for the competitive participation of indigenous operators in shipping activities in Nigeria which include  push for the change in terms of trade from FOB to CIF for the affreightment of crude oil,  single digit interest rate for the maritime sector (CBN/NEXIM BANK/AFRIEXIM), Concessional foreign exchange rate for ship acquisition(CBN), Engagement with Office of the Vice President/EconomicManagementTeam

The Agency  continued its  engagement with state governments to buy into their  cargo support initiative aimed at creating cargo pool for affreightment by indigenous operators.

The aforementioned action resulted in the Nigerian Ship Registry ranking  second in tonnage measurement in Africa after Liberia which operates an open and more flexible registry.

Under Jamoh leadership,  NIMASA Knowledge Centre E.Library was remodeled and commissioned. The facility is open to staff, students/researchers and external stakeholders/maritime operators to increase the knowledge base of the Nigerian Maritime Sector.

Comparing the number of vessels surveyed for flag registration relative to the previous year, it can be observed that the 2021 figure (489 vessels) is 43.6% higher than the total number of condition surveys carried out in 2020 (276 vessels).

Despite the aforementioned achievements of NIMASA under the leadership of Bashir Jamoh, the focus of the Agency in 2022 is  to strengthen  maritime safety and security enforcement mechanisms, organise a stakeholders’ engagement towards harnessing the potentials of a blue economy, enhance revenue for increased contribution to the consolidated revenue fund, movement of the Agency’s Headquarters to its newly acquired building in Victoria Island, operationalization of the floating dock, establishment of regional maritime safety and security training centre, build regional maritime search and rescue clinic, resuscitate Lokoja office and construction of NIMASA zonal offices (Central zone and Eastern zone)

 

 

 

 

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