The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on Friday, disclosed that plans are underway for the privatisation of the moribund modular floating dockyard which will centre on Public Private Partnership (PPP).
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Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, while addressing newsmen in Lagos, reiterated the apex maritime regulatory agency’s commitment in ensuring the revamping of the controversial floating dockyard.
He assured stakeholders of the maritime industry that the floating dock will be operational before the end of first quarter of 2022 .
“However, we don’t want to operate it by government or NIMASA alone but for Public Private Partnership. As usual,the issue of privatisation of any government property is not a product but a process.
Jamoh though declined to name the foreign players of the privatisation process,he added that the Nigerian Ports Authority is a co partner in the process, with provision of its Continental Shipyard.
“We have been undergoing this process, and the DG ICRC was here for the first certificate ,telling us that privatisation of the floating dock is profitable,doable and they gave us the go ahead to do that.
“We have also gone ahead with the Managing partner and co pattern, which is the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA,with the provision of Continental Shipyard.
Jamoh stressed that “We expect in no distance future maximum by February 2022, privatisation must be approved by the Federal Executive Council because it’s a national assets.
He said that the cost implications cannot be handled by the federal government alone pointing out that privatisation would future aid the floating dock operations, saying the foreign counterparts will be take up the class conditions before the usage deployment.
The D-G while reeling out out some of the achievements of the agency in terms of flag state control which has to do with survey and inspection of vessels in accordance with the safety requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act 2007, said 489 vessels were surveyed in 2021 which is 43.6 percent higher than the total number of condition survey carried out in 2020 at 276 vessels.
He said that this is an indication of the maritime administration’s seriousness in terms of flag state survey, noting that for the port state control functions of NIMASA, a total of 429 foreign vessels were boarded to ensure that each vessel maintained safety, pollution standards while at our ports and waters.
According to him, the total number of condition survey for flag registration conducted in 2020 was 276 , while in 2021 it was 489.
For the port state implementation, the 2021 figure as recorded was 675 vessels which is 24.2 % higher than the number of inspections carried out in 2020 of 510 vessels.