THE Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said that the Agency is on a mission of self-recovery towards the actualization of its core mandate for the benefit of the nation’s maritime sector and the country as a whole.
The DG who said this at a Stakeholders forum themed: “Repositioning the Maritime Sector for Greater Impact” held in Lagos also highlighted the need for stakeholders to collaborate with the Agency in order to return the maritime industry to its pride of place in the Nigerian economy.
Dr. Peterside assured the stakeholders of his commitment to move the sector forward saying that the Agency is about to draft a Medium Term Maritime Growth Strategy to cover the next three (3) years and that the strategy will be stakeholder driven, which has necessitated the organisation of the forum.
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While pointing out that the Agency is in the process of a structural, cultural and performance reforms, Dr. Peterside said that the focus of the Agency’s performance will no longer be measured by how much revenue it derives but on how well it can stimulate the necessary growth of the sector for the benefit of indigenous operators and other Nigerians.
“Our performance will be service based and not metric based, the focal point of which will be to create the enabling environment to gainfully engage as many stakeholders as possible with a view to creating wealth and generating employment for the overall good of the maritime industry and the national economy”, the DG stated.
Dr. Peterside thanked the stakeholders for turning out in their numbers for the Agency to draw from their wealth of experience and assured them that contributions will be noted and treated appropriately.
Various stakeholders who attended the event applauded the initiative and offered varying contributions aimed at charting a new roadmap for the development of the maritime industry with the promise to send in detailed written memoranda for the DG’s consideration.