The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was
established by an Act of Parliament (The NIMASA Act 2007) with two cardinal
objectives, namely;
I. To Regulate and Promote Maritime Safety, Security, Marine Pollution and
Maritime Labour.
II. To promote the development of Indigenous Commercial Shipping in
International and Coastal Shipping Trade
The Agency derives its mandate from four Acts of the National Assembly. These
are NIMASA Act, 2007, Cabotage Act, 2003, Merchant Shipping Act, 2007 and
SPOMO Act, 2019.
VISION
To be the leading maritime administration in Africa advancing Nigeria’s global
maritime goals
MISSION
To achieve and sustain safe, secure shipping, cleaner oceans and enhanced
maritime capacity in line with global best practices towards Nigeria’s economic
development
OUR CORE VALUES
C – COMMITMENT
A – ACCOUNTABILITY
P – PROFESSIONALISIM
I – INTEGRITY
T – TEAM WORK
E – EXCELLENCE
L – LEADERSHIP
D – DISCIPLINE
OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD
MARITIME SECURITY S1:
Security of the Maritime Domain is very critical to the day-to-day operation of the
sector. Security helps to boost investors’ confidence; hence, the following key
accomplishments under the current dispensation.
- Signing into law of the SPOMO Act by Mr. President
- The launch of the Deep Blue Project
- Significant Reduction in Piracy and Kidnappings
- Arrests and Successful Prosecution of Criminals
- Leadership of Regional Maritime Collaboration Forum to tackle Insecurity
- Nigeria’s Removal from IMB’s Red List
AIM OF THE DEEP BLUE PROJECT
The aim of the project is to establish a sustainable architecture for improved
maritime safety and security through increased monitoring and compliance
enforcement within Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a view to
effectively tackling the challenges of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
THE DEEP BLUE PROJECT ASSETS BREAKDOWN
Classified into 3 (three) with over 254 personnel drawn from Military and
paramilitary organizations. These are; Marine, Land and Air Assets.
Marine Assets
Special Mission Vessels – 2 (DB Abuja and DB Lagos)
Fast Intervention Boats – 17
Air Assets
Special Mission Helicopters 3
Special Mission Aircrafts 2
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Land Assets
Armored Vehicles – 17
Facilities – Command, Control, Computer, Communication and Intelligence (C4i)
Centre, Training Facilities (Shooting Range, C4i Training Centre etc.). Training;
various training for all personnel in the deep blue project on the assets and
facilities.
THE INTER-OPERABILITY OF THE DEEP BLUE ASSETS
i. Effective implementation of the Deep Blue Project contributing to
reduction in the piracy cases with only one piracy case as at May 2022, 6
cases in 2021 from 35 cases in 2020 and in 2019 respectively
OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD
MARITIME SAFETY S2:
The Agency observed that shipping is critical to global trade, yet it is the
most vulnerable in terms of safety. This explains the reason the IMO
(International Maritime Organization) adopted the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS) convention to ensure the safety of those involved.
Consequently, empowered by enabling legislations, NIMASA takes this as
a critical aspect of its job to ensure safety of ships and those on board,
through proper enforcement of maritime safety conventions.
ACHIEVEMENT AND INITIATIVES
OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD
SHIPPING DEVELOPMENT S3
The critical aspect of shipping development encompasses fleet expansion,
shipbuilding and ship repairs. Shipping is responsible for over 90 percent of
international transportation of goods that sustain the global supply chain, which is
a significant component of the global economy, enhancing import and exports of
goods and services.
NIMASA is poised to advance shipping by ensuring a conducive environment for
commercial shipping and encouraging more indigenous participation in the global
shipping trade.
NSDP BREAKDOWN AS AT OCTOBER 2021
WASTE TO WEALTH PROGRAMME / EMPLOYMENT GENERATION –
1,190 MARINE LITTER MARSHALS
The Making of Nigeria’s Blue Economy Strategic Document
The Vice President His Excellency Yemi Osinbajo will Chair the Expanded
Committee on the Blue Economy Strategy Development and its
Implementation Task Team.
The Federal Ministry of Transportation under the leadership of the
Honourable Minister for Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi
Federal Ministry of Transportation as the Secretariat
BLUE ECONOMY AND LITTORAL STATES ENGAGEMENT
CABOTAGE VESSEL FINANCING FUND (CVFF) – STATUS OF
DELIVERY
Presidential approval granted for disbursement.
Primary lending institutions appointed.
Disbursement likely second quarter 2023.
MARITIME SAFETY
The Federal Executive Council, at the end of the last quarter of 2021, approved the
wreck removals from Badagry axis up to the Tincan Island project has gone very
far.
Again, in the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Executive Council approved the
removal of the entire wrecks also in the other zones of Nigeria, comprising
Western zone with headquarters in Lagos, Eastern zone headquarters in Port
Harcourt and then central Zone headquarters in Warri. All these projects have
achieved major milestones.
We engaged the Nigerian Navy Naval Dockyard in Lagos to repair our
operational vessels, Millennia 1 and Millennium 2. Today both vessels and five
others are almost ready for deployment for enforcement purposes. This will also
enhance our search and rescue operation, port and flag state administration
amongst others.
In other to attend to the emergencies that may occur after a Search and Rescue
Operations, the Agency has built two brand new Search and Base clinic of
international standard at Azare Crescent, Apapa and Kirikiri. We are hopeful to
commission it soon. The hospital is not for NIMASA or Nigeria, but original
Regional States, NIMASA in charge of nine countries in terms of Search and
Rescue. The hospital is of high international standard, we hope to treat all calibers
of patients locally, and internationally, with the state of arts equipment the facility
will possess, when completed.
In the area our Flag and Port State Administration, at the inception of the
administration, there was no single vessel for enforcement. Today, we have built
seven brand new bullet proofs boats and we expect them to have completed the
building. They are being built in Spain, and we are hoping that before the end of
March, we will receive and commission the vessel.
As soon as the vessels are commissioned, there will be enhanced enforcement
performance; and we plan to divide the use of the vessels; not only in Lagos, but
also to other zones of the Agency. All these will cater for the issue of safety.
MARITIME SECURITY
Before 2019, we do not have law, separate law that tried this offenders and
criminals that we arrest those involved in piracy and kidnapping.
Therefore, we try to get this formal act Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime
Related Offences (SPOMO) Act signed by Mr. President in June 2019. As of
today we have secured convictions under this Act. This has also served as a
deterrent to would be criminals.
To further deter these criminalities on the waterways and make our youths
gainfully employed, the Agency engaged the Marine Litter Marshals Usually;
In the area of education, the Agency introduced the Nigerian Seafarers
Development Programme (NSDP). The Nigerian NSDP development program is a
capacity development programme..
Now in order to ensure that we do not forget our own training institution in
Nigeria, we have improved our interface with the Maritime Academy of Nigeria
(MAN) Oron. The Agency’s statutory funding of the Maritime Academy of
Nigeria in Oron has been on point since 2020.
We have Simulators, among other state of the art facilities, and the funding by
NIMASA has been unhindered. This is in addition to other private maritime
institutions, the private like Charkins, they are now also coming up with a lot of
accreditation of diplomas and other short-term certificates that we are doing it
locally, saving foreign exchange that we are having.
In addition to this initiative, the Agency created skill acquisition centres across six
geopolitical zones. For the South-West we have Lagos, in the South-East we have
Anambra, for South-South we have Bayelsa, for North-East, we have Maiduguri,
Borno state; for North-West we have Kaduna State for North Central we have
Kwara.
So all this skill acquisition centers have the capacity of training younger Nigerians
on different aspects of professionalism under that. This is to help trim the number
of this criminality in our own territorial waters. Records therefore shows that from
third quarter of 2021 until date, we have never recorded one single attack in our
own territorial water.
