NIMASA committed to reforming Nigerian ship registry – DG

The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside said this during the Nigerian Ship Registry Interactive Forum with ship owners held recently in Lagos.

The theme of the forum was “Repositioning The Nigerian Ship Registry for Sustainable Growth.”

The Ship Registry gives a ship a nationality, a flag and an identity.

He said “This interactive forum with ship-owners is to bring to them up-to-date with the ongoing reforms in the Nigerian Ship Registry.

The present management began the drive to restructure the Nigerian Ship Registry by inaugurating a committee on the review of the activities and operations of the Nigerian Ship Registration Office on February 27, 2018.

Part of the Terms of Reference given to the committee were to examine the status of the Ship Registry in line with international best standards and recommend requisite improvements of which a report was submitted in 2019 with far reaching recommendations grouped into short, medium and long term measures.

“Immediately after the implementation Monitoring Committee was inaugurated on August 20, 2019 to chart a course for the implementation of the recommendations.

According to him, Nigeria currently operates a Closed Registry with about 2,725 active vessels of various capacity.

He added that in 2019, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) ranked the Nigerian Ship Registry Number 2 in Africa after Liberia (which operates on Open Registry) and 46 in the world.