The failure to implement effective shipping development, maritime labour regulations, safety protocols and environmental protection have led to severe consequences, including sluggish growth and a significant loss of government revenue, With a new leadership in charge of the lead agency in the sector, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA examines the calls for a new and supportive regulatory environment.
Seventeen years after its establishment, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) may have remained trapped in systemic inefficiencies and unfulfilled potential, leaving critical gaps in Nigeria’s maritime sector largely unaddressed.
This shortfall has prevented Nigeria from harnessing the maritime sector’s potential yearly contributions of N7 trillion, a figure that positions it as potentially the largest economic sector outside of oil and gas, including the largely untapped blue economy, valued at $296 billion.
Founded in 2006, NIMASA aims to harness the country’s maritime potential, with responsibilities including safety, security, environmental protection, shipping development, maritime labour regulation, as well as search and rescue operations, as mandated by the NIMASA Act, the Cabotage Act, and the Merchant Shipping Act.
Despite its clear mandate, NIMASA has faced significant challenges in implementing its responsibilities with some key failures, including limited shipping development and promotion, inefficient maritime labour regulation resulting in exploitation and abuse of seafarers, inadequate enforcement of safety regulations, ineffective pollution response and inadequate waste management.
The failure to implement this mandate has resulted in far-reaching consequences, including stunted growth of the maritime industry, the inability to attain maritime hub status and shipping nation, environmental degradation and pollution, reduced government revenue and has denied Nigeria the coveted Category ‘C’ seat on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council.
The former Director General of NIMASA, Temisan Omatseye, had earlier lamented that the agency has over the years lost its core objectives as a maritime administration.
According to him, Section One of the NIMASA Act encapsulates the core function of the agency, which is to develop the indigenous ship owners’ capacity, adding that the regulatory aspect is secondary.
Omatseye also noted that the agency does not have a maritime and policy strategy approved by the National Assembly to drive its operations.
However, the inability to implement maritime labour regulation has hindered the growth of local capacity.
Conflicting statistics have emerged from industry experts, under the former leadership of Dr Bashir Jamoh, NIMASA and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) claimed the country had over 26,098 trained seafarers as of 2023.
A maritime lawyer, Dr Emeka Akabogu, had in a paper presentation titled: ‘Marine and Blue Economy: Navigating to the Promised Land’, said the figure is over and above the about 6,000 seafarers that visit Nigeria and one-third of the about 72,000 seafarers that man the over 4,000 vessels that operate yearly in the nation’s maritime domain as stated by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko.
Akabogu also cited NIMASA’s reports, which showed that most of the vessels that trade within the country’s coastal waters have at least 70 per cent local content in terms of manning and that 11,956 Nigerian seafarers have been placed onboard cabotage vessels from January 2021 to July 2023.
Contradicting NIMASA’s figures, the Secretary General of the Merchant Seafarers Association of Nigeria (MSAN), Captain Alfred Oniye, reported that over 80 per cent of indigenous seafarers are unemployed.
Akabogu said the discrepancy in figures is of concern and speaks to the credibility of available data.
Also, Nigerian seafarers are poorly remunerated as Nigerian Officers of the Watch (OOW) earn an average of $600 per month, while their foreign counterparts can earn up to $3,000.
Maritime safety and security have not fared well in the country either, with appalling data emerging. IBM Security data revealed that in 2020 there were 78 incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea, resulting in 130 seafarers being kidnapped for ransom.
In contrast, 2021 saw a significant decrease, with only four such incidents and one kidnapping involving 14 seafarers. In 2022, 115 incidents of piracy occurred and armed robbery with 14 seafarers kidnapped for ransom in the year, while 2023 experienced a significant upward surge with 120 incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery with 73 seafarers kidnapped for ransom.
Akabogu said that data suggest insecurity is surging, and there is a need to have a more effective approach.
He said when the data started showing a decline in piracy and armed robbery at sea, careful analysis showed a coincidence of the decline in sea piracy with a surge in oil theft. The maritime lawyer said this is left to conjecture whether it was a mere coincidence or reflective of an actual pattern.
He cited the immediate past DG of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, who reported that Nigeria loses approximately $25.5 billion yearly to illegal maritime activities on its waters, while NNPC loses an estimated $1.35 billion on oil bunkering. Also, industry experts have stressed the marine pollution data, which stated that Nigeria ranks ninth in the world for marine pollution, releasing up to 2.5 million tonnes of plastic debris into the ocean following China.
Akabogu said Nigeria, especially off the coast of Lagos and major industrialised cities of the Niger Delta region such as Warri and Port Harcourt holds a negative record of rampant discharge of hot effluents, untreated sewage, oil spills, the litter of plastics, agricultural runoff, discharge of nutrients and pesticides, and other forms of debris into our coastal marine environment.
He cited the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) data that shows that from 2019 to 2021, 1,593 oil spills released 14,116,951 litres of oil into our waters (NOSDRA).
The Cabotage and shipping development have had their fair share as well, as Akabogu explained that one of the most significant programmes of the government aimed at revolutionising the maritime industry is provided for in Section 42(1) and (2) of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003, which creates the regime for the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
The CVFF aims to give opportunities for indigenous participation in all sectors of the economy as well as to promote the development of indigenous ship acquisition capacity by providing financial assistance to Nigerian operators in domestic coastal shipping. Omatseye said it would be impossible for the incumbent DG of the agency to disburse the controversial CVFF.
Omatseye expressed his pessimism based on the conflicting positions between the CVFF guidelines and the regulations of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA). He noted that while NIMASA conducts risk assessments before discussing funds as mandated by the CVFF, BOFIA does not permit outsiders to perform such assessments about funding.
However, he mentioned that incumbent NIMASA leadership, Dr Dayo Mobereola, is not necessarily constrained by the politics that have hindered the disbursement of the controversial CVFF since 2006, as there are viable alternatives within the CVFF disbursement guidelines.
Omatseye highlighted the advantage of the CVFF being disbursed according to guidelines established by the National Assembly and approved by the minister.Also, a Maritime Fund was created under the NIMASA Act to support a wide range of industry initiatives beyond merely ship acquisition.
According to section 15 of the NIMASA Act, the agency funding comes from three per cent of gross freight earnings on all international inbound and outbound cargo from ships or shipping companies operating in Nigeria, and 0.5 per cent of stevedoring charges collected by employers of dock labour.
Section 16 specifies that the Agency must allocate at least 25 per cent of its revenue to the Maritime Fund. Section 17 states that the Agency may use monies from the Fund to promote the development of indigenous shipping and infrastructure, with Nigerian citizens and companies being the primary beneficiaries. Industry experts have also criticised NIMASA for not capturing data about the ship charter market, estimated to be worth N10 billion, other than for bareboat charter.
According to Akabogu, this oversight contradicts Section 19 (9) of the Merchant Shipping Act, which mandates that any charter less than 12 months’ duration, other than a bareboat charter, must be licensed, and such vessels may not fly the Nigerian flag or be regarded as Nigerian-registered vessels.
Stakeholders urged the new NIMASA Director General to address these challenges to ensure the growth of the maritime sector by 2028 and shared their expectations. During a recent interactive session in Lagos between the Director General of NIMASA and maritime stakeholders, solutions suggested for the Maritime Fund included policy and agenda clarification, focus on data capturing, technology management, setting minimum industry standards, ship detention protocols, legal framework optimisation, and recruitment and training agendas.
Akabogu emphasised the community’s reliance on the Marine and Blue Economy sector to efficiently solve everyday problems, create over two million job opportunities, and enhance the fortunes of the common man.
He outlined the industry’s desire to manage the sector effectively, ensuring safe and clean waters, security, organisation, and the facilitation of business.
The maritime lawyer further stressed the importance of vessels being regularly boarded and inspected, licenses being issued upon meeting requirements, timely pollution responses, and efficient maritime labor registration and deployment. Expectations also include diligently reviewing international conventions, arguing on Nigeria’s terms, ratification, domestication, clearing wrecks, and maintaining a credible, accessible and efficient ship register.
Akabogu pointed out the industry’s desire to purchase and operate ships easily, keep them employed and active, have cargo readily available as well as market data and information easily accessible.
Others are to obtain transparent, credible, and reliable financing, ensure legitimate vessel operations are not hindered by inexplicable rejections of already approved classification regimes, functional shipyards to avoid seeking reliable dry-docking abroad and establish a transparent and all-inclusive system of cabotage waivers or licenses.
The Chairman of the National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria’s Board of Trustees, Ahmed Tijjani Ramalan, advised the NIMASA DG on strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing the country’s maritime sector and bolstering the national economy.
He recommended establishing an inter-agency/inter-ministerial committee between the Ministry for Petroleum Resources and the Ministry for Marine and Blue Economy. Ramalan said this committee would develop a framework and mechanism for the carriage of cargo, particularly crude oil, prioritising the training and development of Nigerian sailors, dockworkers, and port workers.
Ramalan underscored the importance of integrating the marine and blue economy sectors with the national carrier, noting that such synergy would amplify economic benefits and opportunities, fostering sustainable growth and development. He suggested that the government should actively facilitate and support the establishment of the national carrier, providing necessary regulatory frameworks, incentives, and financial backing.
Moreover, he emphasised adhering to the Maritime Labor Convention in all aspects of the national carrier’s operations to protect the welfare and rights of seafarers.
