In the News:
Nigerian Port and Maritime News Roundup
Norwegian ships to fly Nigerian flag
A group of Norwegian ship owners have expressed desire to register their ships in Nigeria and fly the country's flag, under a bare boat charter arrangement, according to a press release from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
The Director General of, Mr Temisan Omatseye who broke this news while receiving
members of the Nigerian Maritime Law Association in his office, restated the Agency's commitment to constantly dialogue with stakeholders in the development of the maritime sector.
He called on Nigerian lawyers to specialize in environmental and pollution laws, stressing that in the near future only maritime lawyers would get briefs from the Agency. "We shall work with maritime lawyers; we cannot afford to engage the services of legal practitioners and then begin to educate them on the terminologies of the maritime sector”, he said.
The NIMASA Director General enjoined members of the association and other practicing lawyers to always have a nationalistic disposition when handling cases involving foreign ships. The laws are created to serve the interest of Nigerians and lawyers should explore the positive side rather than concentrate on exploring the loopholes he said.
The Association's First Vice President, Mr Louis Mbanefo SAN, commended the management of NIMASA for its commitment to developing the maritime sector in the country.
"It is quite interesting how this administration has laid out its plan to develop the sector, it is a clear departure from the past where you have a fire brigade approach to doing things, and I am sure the Nigerian maritime industry stands to benefit immensely from your agenda", Mbanefo said.
He informed his host that the adoption of one of the lattest conventions of the International Maritime Organization, IMO, “the Rotterdam Rules” had significant input from the Nigerian Maritime Law
Association.
In her contribution, former Director General of NIMASA, Mrs Mfon Ekong Usoro, commended the Federal Government for the appointment of Mr Omatseye as Director General of the agency. “The maritime industry in Nigeria stands to benefit from the immense wealth of experience acquired by the
DG from his long years in private practice . I have no doubt at all that Temisan Omatseye will deliver. He is a worthy successor and he is the right man for the job", she said.
She remarked that although Nigeria has domesticated many international Conventions of the IMO , there are others yet to be domesticated. She assured the NIMASA Management that her Association is ready to work with the Agency to identify those critical international maritime laws that require immediate domestication.
Cabotage Enforcement: NIMASA/ISAN sign MoU.
MT Sefina Arrested; Malaysian funding on the way
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria, ISAN, have agreed to work closely to check the activities of foreign vessels operating in contravention of the Nigerian Cabotage Act, according to a press release by NIMASA.
A memorandum of understanding to give effect to this new partnership was signed by both organizations, a development that would further boost current efforts to ensure effective implementation of the Cabotage regime in the country.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Temisan Omatseye, noted that effective implementation of cabotage law in Nigeria requires collaboration between NIMASA and stakeholders, particularly, ISAN.
“We are all aware of the challenge cabotage operators are facing in Nigeria due to the activities of owners of foreign-flagged vessels who deliberately contravene the law. We hope that working together will help curb the activities of the non-cabotage compliant vessels”, Omatseye said.
He expressed hope that only cabotage compliant vessels will operate in Nigerian coastal waters just as he informed ISAN that NIMASA has issued a detention order on a foreign vessel, MT Sefina ,for flouting the provisions of the Cabotage Act in Warri Delta state. He disclosed that the Agency has reopened talks with a Malaysian finance group to assist indigenous operators’ access long term capital via alternate sources of funding. The DG assured ISAN members that their interest will be represented by NIMASA.
The NIMASA helmsman expressed optimism that the Agency’s partnership with the Nigerian Navy to expand and commercialize the operations of the Naval Dockyard in Lagos will translate to improved economic gains for indigenous ship-owners.
Mr Omatseye also announced that ship registration process can now be completed within 24 hours, explaining that NIMASA now issues provisional approvals to ship owners to fly the Nigerian flag, while the documentation process continues.
He also said that the interface between the NIMASA’s legal department, cabotage and ship registration units has been streamlined to ensure better synergy.
The Chairman of ISAN, Chief Isaac Jolapamo, while commending the initiative, said he expects that the arrangement would curtail the excesses of foreign ship owners on our waters. “With this development, Nigerians will be the ultimate beneficiary of the MoU. The relationship between the Association and NIMASA can only get better”, he said.
Other members of ISAN present at the signing ceremony were Capt. D O Labinjo, Capt. Wale Aluko and Engr. Greg Ogbeifun.
Five Star Logistics Clears Congestion, stations more equipment.
Five Star Logistics Ltd, operator of the roll-on roll-off terminal at Tin Can Island port in Apapa Lagos, has cleared the minor congestion that affected the facility early this year.
In a chat with the managing director of the company, Mr. P.L. Carrodano, in his office in Lagos, he said the congestion which also affected some other terminals lasted for sometime and was cleared through careful planning and optimal utilization of their resources at the terminal.
He revealed that there was no more waiting time as used to be during that congestion noting that their use of modern equipment expedited cargo loading and off-loading and quickened ship turn round times.
On the advantage of zero waiting time for calling ships, Carrodano said this translates to lower freight rates and cheaper goods in the Nigerian market.
On investment in the terminal, Carrodano who has spent thirty years in Nigeria in the employ of the Comet Group of companies said that Five Star Logistics was making long-term investments and continues to make futuristic plans to build infrastructures at the terminal towards retaining efficiency in service. He revealed that a set of new equipment was being expected at the terminal in very short time to complement their abundance of various equipment stressing that in terms of equipment Five Star had all that it takes to maximize operations at the Ro-Ro terminal.
He concluded by saying that Five Star Logistics will soon be fully certified for ISO-9001-2008, the global prestigious sign for quality service delivery and that Five Star is the only terminal operator to be given this international certification in Nigeria.
P.L. Carodanno, Fivestar Logistics MD
Sekibo, Akhigbe, Bio and Nig Navy Kick Against Maritime Security Bill
Former Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, has picked holes in the proposed bill to create a new maritime security agency in the country. Others who registered their vehement opposition to the bill included former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd), Alh Ibrahim Bio (Ministry of Transport), the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim and the Chief of Policy and Planning, Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Sylvester Umosen.
The bill which has already passed the second reading in the National Assembly was initiated last year by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in the wake of the militancy in the oil and gas rich Niger Delta region. Already, the House of Representatives Committee on Marine Transport headed by Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has held a public hearing on it.
But Dr Sekibo criticised the proposed legislation, expressing dismay in the attempt to transform the former Presidential Implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security (PICOMSS) which was at first set up to facilitate Nigeria’s attainment of ISPS Code status in 2004. ISPS Code was designed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for reasons of port safety and security in the wake of the September 11 th 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. Sekibo described PICOMSS as an ad hoc committee that ought to have wound up its operations on the expiration of the July 1, 2004 deadline for member countries to meet new security status adopted by the global body. He argued that the proposed maritime security bill if passed into law would erode the core functions of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), which enabling law vests on it the responsibility for superintending the provision of security for shipping traffic and the ports.
According to him, the Marine Police is vested with the responsibility of policing Nigeria’s territorial waters up to three nautical miles beyond which the Nigerian Navy takes over to the limit of the country’s exclusive economic zone. Sekibo’s argument include the fact that IMO is an organ of the United Nations which recognises and liaises with non-military national maritime agencies. He posited that apart from Nigeria’s minister of transport who is recognized at the IMO, NIMASA and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) also have relationship with IMO but the UN body does not recognise nor relate with a military-like institutions. He therefore maintained that PICOMSS lacked the requisite equipment and trained manpower to undertake the assignment the proposed bill was seeking to create for it. He further submitted as follows:
“More importantly, it lacks knowledge of port structure as well as ship and port interface. The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code on which the bill is anchored represents only two sections of the all encompassing Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention of the IMO of which Nigeria is a signatory.
“The SOLAS Convention is just one of the numerous IMO conventions Nigeria has adopted and domiciled. Should a separate agency be set up to administer every convention which the bill in question suggests? The office of National Security Adviser is not a statutory office that should appropriate the power to set up, monitor and oversee an agency as the bill in question has done.
The provision for the collection of taxes and levies from ship owners, including two per cent of the value of the gross tonnage of in-bound and out-bound cargo in vessels calling at or departing from any port in Nigeria is ill-advised. It would project Nigerian ports as the most expensive in the world.
Sekibo went further to trace the history of the PICOMSS, saying that “Following the September 11, 2001 terror attack that led to the bombing the World Trade Centre in the United States of America, IMO had adopted the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code to detect and deter security incidents involving ships and port facilities. July 1, 2004 had been set as deadline for IMO members to meet security specifications under the ISPS Code. To facilitate this, the Federal Government had set up PICOMSS to coordinate the attainment of the prescribed security status. Having completed its assignment, PICOMSS failed to wind up and had been drawing funds from the organizations that initially financed its operations.”
On his own part, former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd) said that the functions of the proposed Maritime Security Agency were mere duplications of the responsibilities of both the Nigerian Navy and the NIMASA and that such proliferation of agencies in the sector was unnecessary.
However, former Justice Minister, Michael Aoandoakaa argued that the proposed agency was conceived as a special institution to fill some existing gaps in terms of intelligence gathering and sharing in the maritime sector. Arguing in favour of the bill, the Office of the National Security Adviser represented by one Colonel Musa Gabriel (rtd) told participants at the public hearing that given the numerous security challenges in the nation’s security sector, there was need for a two-pronged approach in tackling the challenges.
But the opposition to the bill was heavy with the Federal Ministry of Transport, Nigeria Navy as well as NIMASA all vehemently opposed to it. They, like Akhigbe, argued that the proposed agency was unnecessary and asked that the bill be thrown out without further delay. They were unanimous in their opinion that the seeming gaps and perceived non-performance of existing maritime security agencies was largely due to poor funding.
Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim and the Chief of Policy and Planning, Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Sylvester Umosen attended the public hearing to represent the Navy. In a presentation on behalf of the Nigeria Navy, Umosen faulted the creation of a Maritime Security Agency (MSA) with the broad functions of promoting maritime security in Nigerian territorial waters. According to him, an analysis of the objectives, functions and operations of the proposed agency shows that it would take over most policing functions of the Nigerian Navy and create avoidable duplicity of effort in the maritime sector.
Lekki Port face Challenges – MD.
The Group Managing Director of Lagos Free Trade Zone, Mr. Haresh Aswani has appealed to the federal and Lagos State governments to make provisions for road and rail network for quick and easy evacuation of goods from the port without which the investment cannot be a success. The deep sea port touted by the promoters to be worth N1.2 trillion is now expected to commence operations in 2012, with the.
The Lekki port is being promoted by Eurochem Corporation of Singapore and the Lagos Free Trade Zone Enterprises and is being projected as a refinery of sorts. Mr Aswani said the port’s technical drawings were approved by the Nigerian Ports Authority and its EIA has been approved by the Federal Ministry of Environment. Projected grounds of the seaport area is 500 hectares and its berths would easily discharge suezmax-sized ships when in operation. According to the operators, all types of cargoes will be handled at the port. With a planned draught of minimum 16.5 metres, ships laden with 8500 TEUs are in the range of those to be handled and will be operated by Lekki Free Trade Zone Enterprises.
In view of this Mr Aswani proposed that a six-lane road be made available to the area as well as linkage roads to other parts of the country without passing the city traffic of Lagos metropolis. They said that investment worth $1.1 billion had been made so far though this cannot be verified by the magazine.
Maritime Academy Oron To Become a University.
There are strong indications that the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron Akwa Ibom State is soon to be upgraded to a university. Commissioning a proficiency-in-survival craft and rescue boat donated by Nigerian LNG at the MAN jetty early this year, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Mr Adefemi Olayisade also took in the new sights of the campus which is being festooned with lots of new infrastructure upgrade and capacity enlargement. New halls of residence are being added as well as new administrative and class room blocks, 3,000 capacity auditorium and new library buildings.
An interview with the rector revealed that a huge sum of money has been set aside for the acquisition of a big training ship which will trade commercially but train cadets of the institution as well. Moreover, DDH gathered that another 45 hectares of land has been made available by the Akwa Ibom State government and this, the magazine gathered, was part of efforts to support the upgrading of the nautical school founded over three decades ago. MAN rector while not denying the information was upbeat that the upgrade was due and well on the way. It also emerged that from the current academic year, MAN will be admitting double the previous intake level new cadets into the academy.
