The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said that the Agency’s 2016 budget targets a strategic growth programme for the maritime sector.
Peterside who said this during the defence of the Agency’s 2016 budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration observed that the Agency was committed to growing the maritime sector for the benefit of indigenous operators and the nation at large.
He informed the Committee members that the Agency targeted strategic growth in five key areas in the year 2016 including maintaining maritime safety and security, maintenance of a clean maritime environment and enhanced port state control.
Others areas the DG mentioned included building human and infrastructural capacity as well as sanitising the maritime environment to eliminate corruption while increasing revenue generation for economic growth.
According to the DG, the Agency aimed to tap into the vast potentials of the Nigerian maritime industry by growing indigenous capacity with a view to making Nigeria a hub for maritime activities in the West and Central African sub region.
Peterside maintained that this process would include a radical restructuring of the Agency with a view to repositioning it for greater efficiency and service delivery.
He also assured the Honourable Members of the management’s commitment to ensure transparency, accountability and probity in the discharge of its mandate warning that there would be zero tolerance for corruption.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Mohammed Umaru Bago commended the spirit of industry and commitment of the DG saying that he had no doubt in the Dr. Peterside’s ability to succeed.
He also challenged the DG to utilise all the resources at his disposal to restore safety in the Nigerian maritime domain and also revamp the image of the Agency which he said had been badly damaged in the last few years.
He assured the Agency of the cooperation and support of the committee for the DG’s programmes for 2016 insisting that the committee would monitor the implementation of the budget very closely.
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