By Foster Obi
Motoring/Maritime Editor
The Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside has rolled out the Agency’s Medium Term Strategic Growth Plan for the maritime industry.
The DG, who disclosed the strategy during an engagement with the maritime reporters in Lagos noted that the Medium Term Strategic Growth Plan covering three years is built around his core mission at NIMASA which is to Reform, Restructure and Reposition the Agency for sustainable growth and development of the maritime industry.
According to Peterside, the strategy document is built on five pillars including Survey, Inspection and Certification, Transformation programme; Environment, Security and Search and Rescue Transformation programme; as well as Capacity Building and Promotional Initiatives which entail growing indigenous tonnage, ship building and human capacity.
Others are Digital Transformation Strategy; and Structural and Cultural reforms including changes to work ethic and attitude of staff as well as processes and procedures.
The DG, who noted that NIMASA is committed to the actualisation of its mandate also said, “The Agency has competent and resourceful personnel who require a visionary and a committed leadership to achieve this vision.
“The times are quite challenging given the dwindling global economy, decline in crude oil price and foreign exchange and fiscal policies which have impacted the revenue of the Agency.
“This requires ingenious leadership to actualise our policy direction and we are committed to providing that leadership” the DG said.
According to Peterside, one of the ways to shore up the Agency’s income to actualise this strategy programme is to block revenue leakages through the full automation of systems and processes to eliminate human contact and increase efficiency.
On capacity building, the DG affirmed his commitment to providing sea time training to cadets of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme and the judicial application of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to assist local operators to re-fleet and increase the nation’s tonnage.
Peterside said that in the short term, the strategic plan of the Agency aims to achieve full automation by the end of 2016, achieve 100 per cent efficiency and effectiveness in processes within the same period and complete its rebranding process by the end of the first quarter of 2017.
