The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has disclosed that the Agency’s 2017 budget is tailored towards the strategic growth and other developmental initiatives of the maritime sector.

The DG who said this recently during the 2017 budget defence session at the National Assembly in Abuja before the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Chaired by Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima stated that the Agency is committed to actualising its core mandates and to grow the maritime sector for the benefit of indigenous operators and the entire nation.

Dr. Peterside observed that the Agency targets strategic growth in five critical areas in the year 2017 namely; maintaining maritime safety and security to bring piracy to its lowest level, maintenance of a clean maritime environment and enhanced port state control, human and infrastructural capacity as well as sanitizing the maritime environment to eliminate sharp practices, while increasing revenue generation for economic growth.

While assuring the Committee members that revenue leakages will be plugged through the Agency’s digitalisation processes, he noted that NIMASA will also embark on an aggressive debt recovery programme, all geared towards enhancing the efficiency of the maritime sector.

“It is expected that the dollar rate will drop drastically through Federal Government’s intervention policies and in turn allow room for more investors. Let me also assure Nigerians’ that the present Management of NIMASA is committed to ensuring transparency in all its processes, accountability and probity in the discharge of its mandate towards making Nigeria a hub of maritime activities in Africa,” the DG stated.

It may be recalled that the NIMASA in the last one year has embarked on several Stakeholder engagements and campaigns towards the actualisation of its mandate in growing the shipping industry in Nigeria and to make it rank high among the comity of maritime nations, and suitable for both foreign and local investors.

NIMASA is the government body solely responsible for the promotion of indigenous shipping and ensuring maritime safety and security on the nation’s waterways.