US Coast Guard lauds NIMASA’s efforts to improve Port security

The United States Coast Guard has commended the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for its efforts to improve security and operational efficiency within Nigeria’s maritime domain. The commendation was given on Thursday in Lagos by a visiting coast guard team led by Lt Commander Janna Ott. The delegation was in Nigeria to inspect facilities and ports. Ott, a representative of the US Coast Guard in International Port Security Programme, said NIMASA had taken laudable steps to improve Nigeria’s compliance with the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) code. Ott said of NIMASA, “You do have a great team here. They were accommodating. “I thank them for their frank and open discussion in allowing us to give them our observations. Hopefully, they can take whatever we have given them to heart and start working on them right away.” She, however, urged greater vigilance regarding access to the ISPS zones at the ports. “It’s very important that you know in your port facilities who is gaining access and they are authorised to be there before they go through those gates of the ISPS zone,” Ott stated. “You also need to be consistent with the proficiencies of all the security personnel in holding people accountable that are coming through those port facilities. We already had an excellent discussion with NIMASA,” she added. Responding, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, said the country had made significant progress in addressing the issue of access control around the port areas. Dakuku, who spoke through NIMASA’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Bashir Jamoh, said, “The issue of access control is one of the paramount areas. The access road, access control, those are critical areas. “Similarly, on access control, we just introduced stickers to the ports. We started implementing it early this month.” He said the federal government had taken measures in partnership with the private sector to ensure that all port facilities in Nigeria were easily accessed. The DG said NIMASA had recorded steady progress in its implementation of the ISPS Code, stressing that Nigeria has moved from implementation to enforcement. “The issues you mentioned, we are dealing with them. One of the things we have introduced is training. We are aware that some of the facilities have these issues. Right now, most of them are going into biometric access control, which you observed in some of the terminals, like MRS, Five Star Logistics, etc.”, he explained. Temitope Adebayo