By Uzor Odigbo
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Dr. Bashar Jamoh as the new Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on March 10, 2020.
Jamoh took over from Dr. Peterside Dakuku as the 12th DG of NIMASA.
The new DG has 32 years of professional experience in the transportation and maritime sector. He joined NIMASA in 2003 as an assistant chief commercial officer, eastern and central zones and specialises in logistics and transport management.
Jamoh hails from Kaduna state, married with children.
He started with the Kaduna State government before joining the then National Maritime Authority in 1994.
Aside from his official capacity at NIMASA, Jamoh is the current president of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria.
He holds a PhD from the University of Port Harcourt and a Master’s degree in management from Korea Maritime and Ocean University, a post-graduate diploma in management sciences from Bayero University, Kano, as well as a diploma in accounting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Jamoh was also in the forefront championing the passage of chartered transport bill into law in 2019, shortly after becoming President of CIOTA.
He had served with the Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) from 1994 to 2003. His stint in NIMASA began in 2003 when he joined the agency as an assistant chief commercial officer, eastern and central zones.
He rose through the system with different spells in the protocol and transport units, assistant director (statistics and research), etc. Jamoh’s selling point was his establishment, equipment and management of NIMASA’s ultra-modern training centre with capacity to accommodate 200 participants at a time.
He successfully planned, managed and appraised capacity development of the largest maritime organisation for about a decade. He also elevated the agency’s training to world-class standard.
As an astute administrator and mentor, he has organised and facilitated leadership training and manpower development programmes in several countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia and Sweden.
Dr. Bashir Jamoh’s personal website (www.bashirjamoh.com) reveals that the incoming Director General of NIMASA is a member and fellow of several prestigious national and international professional bodies. Some of these are: Fellow, Institute for Service Excellence and Good Governance; Fellow, Chartered Institute of Administration of Nigeria; Fellow, Institute of Business Development; Fellow, Academy of Entrepreneurial Studies; Fellow, Institute of Public Diplomacy and Management; Fellow, Institute of Information Management; Member, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management; Member, Institute of Maritime Economist (Canada); Member, Institute of Logistics, London; Member, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs & Member, National Speakers Association and Global Speakers Federation (USA).
The new DG NIMASA is a recipient of numerous awards among which are Distinguished Merit Award for exemplary leadership achievements in Maritime Education in Nigeria from the Institute of Leadership and Development for the Public Good, Kansas, USA and merit award from the Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria.
Other director generals of the agency in chronological order were John Egesi, George Mbanefo Eneh, 1999, Architect Ferdinand Agu 2000 – 2005, Engineer Festus Ugwu, Mrs. Mfon Usoro, Dr. Shamsudeen Adegboyega Dosunmu, 2007, Temisan Omatseye, Zaikede Patrick Akpobolokemi 2010 – 2015 and Dr. Dakuku Peterside (2016 – 2020).
Stakeholders said with Dr. Jamoh at the helm of affairs, the fortune of the maritime industry would change positively.
