The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has emerged winner of the 2016 Public Organisation of the Year award organised by TELL Magazine Nigeria Limited.

During a recent visit to the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside to inform him of the award, the Chairman, Awards Committee of TELL Magazine, Mr. Babs Alasa said the process leading to the award began with a call for nominations from the public. He said the nomination brought out three organisations, with NIMASA earning the highest percentage of the votes to beat the other two. “Credibility is key to the process,” Alasa assured.

According to a statement by Isichei Osamgbi, Head Corporate Communications, NIMASA, Alasa said that respondents were of the opinion that NIMASA, under the leadership of Dr. Peterside, had undergone total reforms which had seen it playing its expected role as a facilitator of economic prosperity in the maritime sector, a position Vice President Yemi Osinbajo corroborated during the third Conference of the Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA), which was hosted by NIMASA in conjunction with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

The recently approved Maritime Security Architecture and Infrastructure, to be jointly coordinated by NIMASA, the Ministry of Transportation and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) is seen as one major reason Nigerians voted the Agency as the Public Organisation of the Year.

In addition, the full automation of all NIMASA operational processes and the restructuring of the Agency that has led to semi-autonomous zonal operations and decentralisation of functions such as issuance of Sailing Certificates, payment of bills and other operational procedures were seen as enhancing the Federal Government’s ease of doing business initiative to attract Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria.

Furthermore, the Agency, currently undergoing total rebranding process, has also improved Nigeria’s compliance level of the International Ships and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code since becoming the Designated Authority for its implementation in Nigeria.

The present management at NIMASA has intensified the Agency’s drive to ensure strict ISPS Code compliance and the result is that Nigeria now has a compliance rate of almost 80 per cent as 114 port facilities out of the total 145 ports in Nigeria are now fully ISPS compliant. This is considered a remarkable achievement considering the fact that NIMASA was only appointed the Designated Authority for the implementation of ISPS Code in Nigeria barely five years ago when compliance level was barely 13 per cent.

Efforts of the Agency to grow human capital through the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme have also received wide commendation. So far, 1,045 beneficiaries have graduated from the project, representing 42 per cent graduates of the over 2,500 NIMASA sponsored beneficiaries.

The challenge of sea time has now been resolved as Dr. Dakuku and his team have been able to engage schools in Egypt, United Kingdom and Turkey to directly facilitate such training for NSDP graduates. Three hundred graduates are to get their sea time training through Arab Academy in Egypt, over 220 to have sea time facilitated by South Tyneside College in South Shield in the UK, while another 400 will acquire sea time through training institutions in Turkey.

The Awards according to the organisers, slated for June 17, 2017 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, also have as recipients Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who emerged winner in the National Icon of Democracy category, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State as the Governor of the Year, Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari as the Woman of the Year, and late Dele Giwa as the all-time National Icon of Freedom of Speech.

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