Deep Blue Sea economy will take Nigeria to next level — NIMASA
Barth Ndubuwah, Port Harcourt
As efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy continue, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has sounded it loud and clear that the Deep Blue Sea economy is the answer and has the potentials to turn around the country’s economy outside oil and gas.
The Director General (DG) of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh stated this in Port Harcourt Friday in a parley with mainstream media on the achievements of his current leadership in NIMASA.
Speaking through his Special Adviser (SA) on Communications and Strategy, Mr Ubong Essien, the DG said on assumption of office barely one year ago, he packaged a well thought out strategic plan hinged on tripods to develop and harness the potentials embedded in the maritime domain of Nigeria.
According to Essien, the tripple ‘S’ as the strategy is commonly referred to falls under maritime security, maritime safety and shipping development.
The SA said while the maritime security is to ensure calmer coast and safe sea, maritime safety is targeted at making the maritime domain conducive and safe for shipping operations.
On shipping development, the SA said NIMASA is poised to developing capacity to effectively carry out operations in the blue sea economy. In line with that, Essien said over 200 cadets have been sent to Greece and India to be trained as seafarers. This, he said falls under the National Seafarers Development (NSFD) scheme of the current NIMASA leadership led by Bashir Jamoh and is meant to train manpower to undertake tasks in the much challenging maritime corridors of the nation.
Still under maritime safety, the SA said wrecks that have hitherto militated against smooth sailing of vessels are being removed from the water channels to enhance navigational safety and improve productivity.
“The Deep Blue Sea project is therefore a collaboration between the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Transportation. NIMASA is driving it as a Realising Agency in terms of funding for acquisition of assets,” Essien said.
The SA equàlly told journalists that as part of the DG’s commitment to rid the maritime domain of crime, over 20 arrests have been made and convictions secured at the Federal High Court in Lagos under the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, 2019, to serve as deterrent to potential criminals along the maritime corridors of Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea at large.
Mr Essien said to fully harness the potentials of the maritime domain, NIMASA has to galvanize the littoral states comprising Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Ogun and Akwa Ibom States to act as engine to drive the blue sea economy.
He said Bayelsa State will specifically recycle wrecks removed by the Agency into reusable metals in conjunction with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), with South Africa providing technical support, thereby creating jobs for Nigerians.
The SA said other areas such as aqua-culture, maritime academy, fishing, tourism, among others will be embraced by respective littoral states according to their comparative advantages.
“A value chain will be created in the blue economy. So NIMASA’s role is to galvanize the littoral states to serve as engine to drive the blue economy. The idea is to highlight the maritime potentials of the country against the current mono-economy of oil and gas,” Essien explained.
He further said that a collaboration among Navies and industries in the Gulf of Guinea known as Shared Awareness for the De-confusion (SHADE) of the area has been put in place to gather and share intelligence.
The essence, the SA said, is to ensure that any crime committed in any part of the coastline is tracked and perpetrators apprehended.
Mr. Essien said in view of the aforementioned myriad of achievements recorded by the DG, he was recently given Zik Leadership Award to crown it all.
