Jamoh’s 3-Year Leadership Scorecard At NIMASA
- Over N100bn remitted to FG, Piracy declines to zero
As the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, OFR clocks three years at the helm of affairs at the agency and News Diet takes a peek into the milestones as outlined by the agency’s Public Relations team as we juxtapose with some shortcomings and unattended areas in his administration.
One of the most significant attainments for the agency and the nation at large, within the three year period, has been the drastic decrease in piracy and other maritime crimes with 81 piracy incidents recorded in 2020, 34 in 2021 and zero in 2022. This commendable record of zero incidents has spilled into the first quarter of 2023 and the agency is working assiduously to maintain status-quo.
Similarly, kidnappings in the entire Gulf of Guinea (GoG) region witnessed a notable decrease from 130 incidents in 2020 to 57 cases in 2021 and zero throughout 2022 and none so far in 2023. If sustained at zero per annum, the Extra War Risk Insurance (EWRI) premiums and other charges introduced on account of piracy are on course to be removed.
On revenue, over N100billion has been remitted into the federal government’s covers according to reports released by the NIMASA Public Relations team in commemoration of Jamoh’s third year anniversary as Director-General of NIMASA.
The figures actually show that N99,944,345,082 have been remitted to the federal government from January 2020 to June 2022.
While the Deep Blue Project launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2021 has received more commendations for the reduction in maritime crimes, the Jamoh-led administration actually utilized a multi-facted strategy in accomplishing the unprecedented feay. The agency struck new levels of strategic collaborations with regional countries and other global shipping nations with huge trade interest in the region.
The Suppression of Piracy and Other related Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, better partnership with the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies within and outside the country have been gainfully explored to attain peace in the GoG region and ultimately Nigeria has been removed from the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Red List as well as the International Bargaining Forum’s (IBF) Unsafe Waters List.
On seafarers development via the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), the agency has enrolled 2041 students since inception in 2009.
The number of officers (Graduates) completely trained under the NSDP from inception is 656. While 625 individuals have obtained their Certificate of Competence (CoC), 31 others were Naval Architects. Meanwhile, 360 cadets have completed seatime and are awaiting CoC, 351 have been assigned to MTIs and awaiting seatime, 120 have been withdrawn and 10 deceased.
A well-motivated workforce is the foundation for any productive organization and the Jamoh-led administration at NIMASA has been able to motivate staff for optimal productivity. Within the last three years over 1, 300 staff have been promoted from one grade level to another as , 595 in 2020, 302 in 2021 and 472 in 2022 were promoted.
Although his administration inherited a staff condition of service which was last reviewed in 2010, Dr Jamoh and his management team secured a review taking into consideration the realities on ground.
Deep Blue Project Assets
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), 17 Fast Intervention Boats.
Air Assets: Special Mission Helicopters 3, Special Mission Aircrafts 2, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Land Assets: 17 Armored Vehicles
Other facilities are – Command, Control, Computer, Communication and Intelligence (C4i) Centre, Training Facilities (Shooting Range, C4i Training Centre etc.)
Various trainings have been organized for all personnel in the deep blue project on the assets and facilities.
Following his appointment as Director General, Jamoh revealed that his administration will be anchored on a tripod to be known as 3S. They are; maritime Safety, maritime Security and Shipping development. Updates on NIMASA’s accomplishments via this tripod as captured by the agency’s Public Relations team is below:
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 Tin Can Island project has gone very far.
Also, 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.
NIMASA 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 order 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 Flag and Port State Administration, at the inception of the administration, there was no single vessel for enforcement in the past. 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, the nation didn’t have a separate law that tried this offenders and criminals that were arrested having been involved in piracy and kidnapping.
Therefore, Jamoh pushed for a formal act and the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Related Offences (SPOMO) Act was signed by Mr. President in June 2019. As of today, with the SPOMO Act, the agency has 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
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 MAN Oron has been on point since 2020.
Nigeria currently has 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, these 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.
Shipping Development
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.
Our Verdict
As Jamoh marks his third year as helmsman at NIMASA some areas not captured in his scorecard which he would hope to make positive marks include; improving the nation’s ship registry to attract more registrations perhaps beginning with that Nigerian LNG Limited (NLNG) which has the most vessels yet registers with foreign flags.
Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing also referred to as poaching remains a huge problem in the African maritime domain. Over 40 percent of Global IUU fishing is domiciled in the continent and the GoG accounts for a sizable portion. Jamoh and NIMASA should be able to capture IUU fishing as a maritime crime under its tripod and explore avenues to curb the menace.
Updates on seafarers development via the NSDP was given earlier but industry stakeholders have observed that several NSDP beneficiaries remain unemployed after the venture. More opportunities will be created for them and others awaiting seatime when indigenous ship-owners have access to funding and an enabling environment for shipping businesses to thrive.
Despite the well-rounded tranquility on Nigerian waters and the entire GoG, there are concerns that the inland waterways haven’t been captured in the security arrangement and threats may spring up on brown waters. Although NIMASA’s role is on blue waters, it will be pertinent to synergize with the Marine Police, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and other agencies to also prioritize activities on creeks and inland waters where the big shipping crimes are hatched.
Nigeria’s attempt at securing a seat at the IMO Council hasn’t been successful although Dr. Jamoh’s administration has only had one shot in 2021, another opportunity comes up later this year, precisely in December.
Like the nation ‘Nigeria’, its maritime domain is ridden with numerous challenges and the apex maritime regulator, NIMASA is saddled with the onus of providing solutions, Dr. Bashir Jamoh has ticked several boxes and truly deserves accolades. Nevertheless, it’s not yet uhuru!
Thankfully, Jamoh takes commendations moderately and criticisms critically. His focus will be on consolidating on the 3-year achievements whilst vigorously attacking other areas for better results.
Indeed, it has been an eventful three years with numerous accomplishments for Jamoh who joined NIMASA, then National Maritime Authority, in 1994. Experts posit that these benefits accrued from having an industry veteran heading a key parastatal.