Nigeria’s Maritime Administration and Safety Agency currently relies on its 2007 Act to regulate the nation’s maritime industry. With efforts in top gear to amend the Act at the National Assembly, TOLA ADENUBI looks at what is most likely to change if the Act is successfully amended.
The NIMASA Act 2007 made it overly clear that the agency is a “Maritime Administration”, hence it has responsibility to promote, regulate and administer public policies in the sector.
In summary, Section 22(1) of the NIMASA Act 2007 saddled the agency with the responsibility of carrying out the following activities in pursuit of her statutory functions: cabotage implementation, indigenous capacity building (human and infrastructural), investment promotion, flag state administration, port state control, administration of ship registration, wreck receipt and removal, maritime search and rescue operation, survey and certification of ships, maritime labour administration, maritime security administration, marine pollution prevention and control, seafarer’s standards and training, marine environment management, marine accident investigation, carry out air and coastal surveillance, hydrographic surveys and charting of the marine domain, interface nigeria with the rest of the international maritime community and issuance and enforcement of marine notices on safety and marine environment matter.
With the amendment of the 2007 NIMASA Act now in top gear at the National Assembly, below are some of the trends that might come to be or raise further questions if the existing NIMASA Act is successfully repealed:
Modernisation of terms
The NIMASA Act amendment seeks to update terminology such as replacing “Free On Board (FOB)” with “Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF)” to align with contemporary practices.
CIF and FOB are international shipping agreements used in the transportation of goods between a buyer and a seller. Both contracts specify origin and destination information used to determine where liability officially begins and ends. In CIF agreements, insurance and other costs are assumed by the seller, with liability and costs associated with successful transit paid by the seller up until the goods are received by the buyer. FOB contracts relieve the seller of the responsibility once the goods are shipped.
With Nigeria losing billions of revenues thorough the sale of its crude oil on FOB basis, the amendment of the NIMASA Act will go a long way in bringing back the country’s lost revenue if its trade terms are changed to CIF.
Open shipping registry
Nigeria currently runs a closed registry for ship registration, which has not attracted patronage from major shipping lines. Flag registration is an essential part of any Ship Registry and the Liberian Flag is the most sought-after Flag for most ships, earning the country huge amount of revenue.
It is no longer news that many indigenous ship owners in Nigeria still take their vessels abroad for ship registration process. Despite the ships being owned by Nigerian companies, many of these ships fly foreign flags because of the unattractive nature of the Nigerian ship registrar.
If successfully amended, the Nigerian ship registration will become open and should attract patronage from ships across the globe, including within.
Enhanced prosecutorial powers/coast guard function
A major flashpoint between the Nigerian Navy and NIMASA is Clause 59 of the proposed NIMASA Act amendment and the definition of Coast Guard functions. The amendment, when passed, will allow NIMASA impose fines on maritime security offenders without taking them to court.
During the public hearing on the bill which was organized by the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, the Director General of NIMASA, DayoMobereola commended the Senate for coming up with the proposed legislation saying that the proposed bill was in line with international best practices.
“The proposed amendments would empower us at NIMASA to impose fines on offenders without needing court actions, thus streamlining enforcement processes which are clearly in line with international best practices”, the NIMASA DG said.
No sooner had he finished than a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Navy which represented the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla raised concerns about the process.
While supporting some of the proposed amendments however, the naval officer pointed out that a section of the proposed law mandating NIMASA to provide security could lead to conflicts on responsibilities between NIMASA and the Navy.
“Maritime security is largely ensured by the Nigerian Navy while other relevant agencies like NIMASA, complement.
“Therefore, as observed in a section of the proposed amendment, giving Maritime security to NIMASA is wrong because the Nigerian Navy fundamentally defends the territorial water space of Nigeria “, the Naval officer who represented the Chief of Naval Staff explained.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Wasiu Eshinlokun (APC, Lagos Central) said the proposed amendments were not targeted at the Nigerian Navy’s fundamental mandate of territorial water protection but to empower NIMASA to be more effective on its own mandate.
“The proposed amendments to the NIMASA Act aim to bolster Nigeria’s maritime security framework, ensuring safer and more efficient maritime operations in the country,” Senator Eshinlokun stated.
Only time will tell if Clause 59 and the clearer definition of functions of Coast Guards will be beneficial to the country or will pit NIMASA against the Nigerian Navy as to who determines what on Nigeria’s territorial waters.
Financial independence
The proposed amendment also seeks to strengthen Clause 17, subsection 7 to enhance financial autonomy for the nation’s maritime administration. This will benefit the nation’s maritime space as the issue of funding which has slowed down many projects executed by previous administration of NIMASA will become a thing of the past.
Inter-agency collaboration
This aspect of the bill amendment will also only become clearer after it has been passed into law due to many functions currently duplicated or overlapping among various maritime agencies of government. The NIMASA Act amendment seeks to improve coordination and avoid duplication of functions among government agencies. However, the issue of overlapping functions like removal of wrecks, registration of fishing vessels amongst others will only become clearer when the bill is passed into law.
