By Stephen Ubanna
Bashir Jamoh, Director General, Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency and his Counterpart in Ghana Maritime Authority, GAMA, Kwame Owusu, may have reached a good working agreement over the last three years ‘’to continue to engage on how strengthen the protectionist approach towards building indigenous apacity the maritime sectors in the two West African countries’’.
This may have informed why Owusu, the GAMA, Chief Executive Officer, CEO, could consider it necessary to send Mrs. Patience Diaba, the agency Director of Legal services and some other members of Staff of the Ghana maritime Administration to NIMASA, ‘’to understudy the implementation of the operations of the agency Cabotage regime by the official of theCabotage Department, in order to replicate same in GAMA.
The NIMASA CEO, who could not hide his feelings may have hit the nail on the head when he said that the GAMA staff understudy and consequent replication of this element of the NIMASA Cabotage regime shall help Ghana fund its indigenous ship and other maritime assets. He may have alluded to the Deep Blue Project in which President Muhammadu Buhari had spent $195 million to acquire and take delivery of maritime security assets comprising of 16 armoured vehicles for Coastal Patrol, 17 Fast Interceptor Boats, Two Special Mission Vessels, Two Special Mission aircrafts , for surveillance of Nigeria Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, three Helicopters and four unmanned Aerial vehicles from HLSI Services and Technologies Ltd, an Israeli security firm.
The ten-days traing programme for the GAMA officials which was said to kick-started on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, after the Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023, welcome by Jamoh and his Management Team to Nigeria and expected to end on May 13, 2023.
Many believe that the real training programe may have stated on May 2, 2023, when the NIMASA CEO, gave the nod to Victor Ochei, an Engr. And the agency Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage services the floor to speak.
He had hit the ground rolling when he revealed that the agency had ‘’evolved many ways to get to its present enviable level in respect of the successful implementation of the Cabotage regime in Nigeria which knowledge would be impacted to the GAMA staff to replicate in their country without ‘’its pitfalls and struggles learned by them over the last three years to overcome overtime by attaining the expertise and skills through consistency.
An insider confirmed that the Cabotage and Legal Department deployed by Engr. Ochei, The Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage services and Head of the Legal Department at the instance of the NIMASA Director General were said to have started the Cabotage regime traing programme for the GAMA staff who were said to have listened with rapt attention and taking notes through the enabling Legislations and instruments that empower them to operate and enforce its procedures.
Jamoh may have gladdened the heart of Mrs. Diaba and team when he assured them that the agency have good hands that would take them the nitty –gritty of the four pillars of the Cabotage regime as implemented in Nigeria in order ‘’to replicate same in Ghana’’..
It was an eye opener to the GAMA officials who believe that they have not started and that they have not started as they still have a lot to learn from NIMASA to fully reposition their own agency to perform beyond the present elementary level of the agency.
As a prelude to the putting the GAMA staff to the rudiments of the training programme , Jamoh, the NIMASA Director General , described as an Encyclopaedia of Nigerian maritime sector had made Mrs. Diaba and her Team to understand that ‘’there cannot be better time to have come for the Cabotage regime training programmme other than now that Nna Akufo, the Ghanaian President had convened an extraordinary summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Gulf Commission in Accra, the country’s capital.jJ
Given the importance attached to the summit by the Nigerian government may have informed why the Katsina state born Nigerian President had given the keynote address on ‘’strategies for strengthening peace and security in the fight against maritime –related crimes in the region’’, amid applause.
He had made the GAMA visitors to understand that that the Nigerian Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage Act) was promulgated into Law in 2003, by the then President Oluegun Obasanjo but came into force in Nigeria in 2004 , describing it as an essential a ‘’local-capacity Law’’, aimed at empowering indigenous ship-owners for greater participation in the country’s maritime trade’’.
He had Corroborated what Engr. Ochei, Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage services had said that that the Cabotage regime is based on four key pillars; ensuring that vessels that operate in Coastal waters within the country’s maritime domain are built in Nigeria, owned by Nigerians, manned by Nigerians and Registered I Nigeria to fly the country’s flag.
The NIMASA, boss may have exposed NIMASA to the envy of the GAMA visitors who appear to be in a hurry to return home to start implementation of the Cabotage regime in their own country when he disclosed that ‘’there has been an increase in the number of local participations in the country’s maritime domain since the advent of the Cabotage Act in 2004, noting that 68 percent of vessels trading within the country’s maritime space are Nigerian –flagged and not Liberia or Philippines flagged.
industry operators believes that NIMASA , under the present Management led by Jamoh , could achieve that much within the short period because they have ensured that proper attention is paid to the essense of the Cabotage regime mandate.
Recall that the NIMASA helmsman, in his welcome address on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, had given out a bit of the information about the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF, when hen he said that ‘’it is a special that is basically obtained through collection of a two percent surcharge from the total contract sum performed by any vessel engaged in Cabotage trade’’.
He noted that the surcharge is collected by past and present Administrations ‘’to offer financial assistance , create access to funding by Financial Institutions with the aim of increasing indigenous participation capacity for qualified Nigerians’’.
