Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has extended the validity of Statutory and Trading certificates for all Nigerian Registered vessels.
These include Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) certificates for seafarers issued by the agency.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, who made this known at the agency’s head office in Lagos, said that NIMASA remained committed to implementing its mandates during the COVID-19 crisis.
Jamoh said that it was necessary to ensure uninterrupted shipping despite the pandemic, stressing that shipping is one of the major ways of moving medical aid across the globe.
Our determination to ensure that shipping continues during this trying time remains unwavering and this is why we have continued to come up with measures to keep the global shipping chain moving in line with the recommendations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Jamoh stated.
He said that the agency was aware of the difficulties seafarers would be facing and the need to keep them in job even beyond the pandemic, saying, “This has necessitated the agency’s publication of a notice to extend their certificates and other statutory certificates that would ensure uninterrupted shipping.”
According to Jamoh, “One of our major priorities is to keep our seafarers in job while not jeopardising their safety in terms of contracting the deadly virus. We have, therefore, come up with a notice that would extend the validity of their certificates, for those of them that might be expiring soon. We have also issued guidelines that would regulate crew change during this pandemic.”
