By Godwin Oritse

MARITIME Security Providers Association of Nigeria, MASPAN, has said that the newly appointed Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, must ensure that local content laws are strictly adhered to with a view to growing the industry.

Speaking to Vanguard Maritime Report in Lagos, weekend, the General Secretary of MASPAN, Mr. Emmanuel Maiguwa, said that the NIMASA helmsman must ensure local laws and policies are in place to galvanize industry growth adding, “no matter how good the policies are, as long as assets are not secured it will be bad for business”.

He recommended the formation of a directorate of maritime security to combine all security issues in one place with a view to having a strategic maritime security policy. The new NIMASA boss is an advocate of maritime security.

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Maiguwa also said that NIMASA must look into the issue of indigenous development and deploy indigenous capacity to develop the industry.

He said: “The appointment of Jamoh is placing a square peg in a square hole. I will like to say that the Federal Government has taken a right step in the right direction.

“Jamoh is fit to run the Nigerian maritime administration in a complex country like Nigeria and the person that has been given this opportunity is a systems person. I also believe that there is no better person to be so appointed than Bashir Jamoh that will be able to listen to the stakeholders.

“I want him to look at local content; local content with regards to oil and gas industry, policies, regulations and codes that usually govern the maritime industry and shipping are instruments of the International Maritime Organization, IMO, so countries are forced to enforce the convention because they are obliged to enforce them.

“He has spent a good number of years in the industry and seen policies that have affected the industry positively.”

Vanguard