By Patience Chat Moses
The Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for the West and Central African Region (Abuja MoU) has welcomed the Republic of Equatorial Guinea as its 20th full member state. Republic of Equatorial Guinea deposited a Letter of Acceptance of the Memorandum to Abuja MoU Secretariat, recently.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central African Region (Abuja MoU) was signed at a Ministerial Conference held in Abuja, Nigeria by sixteen West and Central African States in October. The meeting was organized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and hosted by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Abuja Memorandum of Understanding is the legal document under which maritime authorities of countries in the region agreed to develop and implement a common mechanism for the respective port state control activities.
The main work of Abuja MoU is to harmonize the port state control procedures and practices of all the countries in the region aimed at eliminating the operation of substandard shipping within the region, thereby ensuring maritime safety, security, protection of our marine environment from pollution, improving the working and living conditions of ship crew and facilitating regional cooperation and exchange of information among member states.
The Secretary General of Abuja MoU, Captain Sunday Umoren, explained that Port State Control is the inspection carried out on foreign ships that call at respective ports, to verify their compliance with international instruments on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions and this will enable the Republic of Equatorial Guinea to ensure safety of its waters.
He said with the full membership, Equatorial Guinea will enjoy the protection of the maritime clusters and diverse economic sectors of the blue economy, protection of import and export with only seaworthy vessels visiting its maritime domain and expanded access to accessible training at national and regional levels.
Umoren said that with the attainment of full membership, Equatorial Guinea has taken the first step towards ensuring that its waters are safe and secured.
He added that other advantages of signing into the MoU include “improved reputation in the comity of maritime nations, as being an active member of the MoU regime is synonymous with the declaration for the protection of the maritime environment; protection of the maritime clusters and diverse economic sectors of the Blue economy; including protection of import and export, as only seaworthy vessels can visit the maritime domain. Others include expanded access to accessible training at national and regional levels for your maritime experts as well as access to the mentor/mentee scheme which is facilitated by the Abuja MoU.”
He enjoined the country to ratify and domesticate all IMO and ILO conventions that have been approved by the Abuja MoU Port State Control Committee as relevant instruments; work with the secretariat on capacity building and capacity development of its port state control officers and other relevant personnel.
Since its inception, the 20 full members of the Memorandum now comprise of Angola, Benin, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Togo.