By Adeniyi Onifade
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is seeking a partnership with the Norwegian government for the development of shipbuilding and ship repair, which is currently a huge challenge for the shipping industry in Nigeria.
This is even as the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, has commended Nigeria for her role in the Gulf of Guinea leading to the curbing of the criminal activities of sea pirates in the region.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, while playing host to the visiting team from Norway, led by Huitfeldt, called for a partnership between Nigeria and Norway in the area of shipbuilding and ship repair.
Dr. Jamoh noted that though the nation hosts over 110,000 vessels annually, most of the ship owners move their vessels to other neighboring countries like Togo, Ghana, and the Republic of Benin for drydocking and ship repair due to a lack of viable shipbuilding and ship repair services in the Nigerian shipping industry.
In his own words, “over 110, 000 vessels come to Nigeria annually but because of lack of ship repair facilities in the country, some of the ship owners have to move their ships to Togo, Ghana and the Republic of Benin to repair their ships.
“There is a huge demand for ship repairs in the country, and NIMASA welcomes any possible partnership with Norway in order to exploit and develop shipbuilding and ship segment of the maritime industry in the country.”
Commenting on Nigeria’s efforts in the sustainable development and operation of a viable regional maritime sector in Africa, the Norwegian Foreign Minister maintained that the peace and security that the shipping community is currently enjoying in the Gulf of Guinea is to a large extent due to the dedication and commitment of Nigeria to the safety and security in the otherwise troubled region.
His words: “I thank the Nigerian government and NIMASA for their dedication to the safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea. I am deeply impressed by what I saw on my visit to NIMASA.”
She also said that Nigeria is one of the respected partners of Norway, and that the role of the country in the Gulf of Guinea is deeply appreciated by the government of Norway.
According to her, “Norway has contributed to maritime development in Nigeria through capacity training and has also rendered economic assistance through the United Nations towards enhancement of maritime safety.”
Speaking further, the NIMASA boss further disclosed that the deployment of the Agency’s N50 billion modular floating dock will help the Nigerian maritime economy to generate the sum of about N1 billion each month.
This is because, after four years of its acquisition, the Federal Government recently announced the approval of the concessioning of the N50 billion floating dockyard owned by NIMASA.
The floating dockyard, which was acquired in 2018 and has been idling away since its acquisition for more than four years, was concessioned to a company known as J. Marine Logistics Limited.
Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Michael Ohiani, who made the disclosure, said the contract for the concession of the floating dockyard will enable the concessionaire to operate, maintain and transfer back the floating dockyard after an initial period of 15 years.
According to him, the concessioning of the floating dockyard is expected to generate $65.6 million, about N27.2 billion in aggregate terms, into the coffers of NIMASA and to create over 800 direct and indirect jobs.
Beyond revenue generation, he said, the floating dockyard is also expected to develop capacity and provide maintenance facilities for ships and boats.
It is expected that putting the floating dock into use will provide a lot of benefits to the maritime industry. This ranges from conserving foreign exchange to providing employment and boosting indigenous capacity, developing shipping, and providing training exposure for students of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, located in Oron, and the Maritime University, located in Okerenkoko.
To ship owners, putting the floating dockyard into use holds serious positive economic implications for the nation’s shipping business, which presently depends on other countries to dry-dock both Nigerian and foreign-flagged vessels that do business on Nigerian waters.
Currently, there are no serious dry-docking facilities in Nigeria, and Nigerian ship owners go to countries like Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, and Namibia among others to repair their vessels.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) specifies that every vessel must dry-dock once in three years in order to retain safety classification and insurance cover.
It is also estimated that Nigeria will be saving about N300 billion in losses to capital flight on yearly basis after deploying the NIMASA-owned floating dock.
Shipowners said that it costs between $1.5 million to $1.8 million to tow a vessel to countries like Singapore for repair, while it costs between $300,000 and $500,000 to dry-dock a vessel in the international market, hence the need for more dry-docking facilities within Nigeria.