The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, says the agency is working with relevant authorities to ensure a review on the war-risk insurance on Nigerian-bound cargoes.
He said this will lead to the downward review of the astronomically high insurance premium paid on cargoes meant for Nigerian ports.
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Dr Jamoh who disclosed this during an interactive session with media stakeholders over the weekend reiterated that the agency is committed to continuing collaborating with all stakeholders to ensure that Nigeria attains the status of not only the hub of maritime activities in the West and Central Africa region but also a major maritime player globally.
The NIMASA DG said the statistics released by the International Maritime Bureau, IMB, showing piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea dropping from 81 in the year 2020 to 34 in 2021 representing 58.02% was not by accident, but a product of conscious collaborative efforts by the agency, the Nigerian Navy and other stakeholders in the region.
He also noted that the IMB report also shows a 62% decrease in the number of crew-kidnapping incidents in the Gulf of Guinea which reduced from 150 in 2020 to 57 in 2021.
Commenting on statutory levies stakeholders pay the federal government through the agency, Jamoh reaffirmed that NIMASA levies are in accordance with the provisions of the Act which set up the agency.
“The NIMASA Act 2007 which is our guiding principle only states that our charges must be a component of the gross freight and must be paid by ship owners not in terms of product to marketers or any other entity,” the DG said.
The NIMASA Chief Executive said all the payments, either in hard currency or naira, are made into the Treasury Single Account of the FG.
He said it is for the benefit of all Nigerians that the country does not further lose any source of its revenue through underpayment in statutory charges or levies.
The NIMASA DG described the recent explosion which occurred on Trinity Spirit Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) as unfortunate, adding that the agency is working with other relevant organs of government to establish the immediate and remote causes of the fire explosion.
He noted that the issue of environmental pollution was highlighted in the preliminary report and the agency will work with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) through the use of the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) funds for compensation of all the losses within and around the facility.
He said the public will be informed of every detail concerning the incident as the situation unfolds.
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