Dakuku Peterside

The Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, said the agency is partnering with foreign ship registry to reposition the Nigerian Ship Registry (NSR).

Peterside disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

“We are also reforming the Nigeria Ship Registration Office. For a very long time the Nigeria ship registry has not been very competitive, so we are developing a lot of partnerships.

“With American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) of the United State, with Lloyds of London and with the UK register and Norway register, we are building a number of partnerships to reposition the NSR.

“To make the ship register business friendly, make it competitive and make it responsive to the yearnings of those who are enlisted in our register, who fly Nigeria flags.“

The NIMASA boss however noted that the anti-piracy bill has been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly for the first time.

He said that the bill would provide a framework to fight pirates and other criminals.

“I am glad to tell you that both chambers of the National Assembly have passed the Anti-piracy bill for the first time in our country.

“We are going to have a standard piece of legislation that will deal with piracy, that will provide us a framework to fight this pirates and criminals who operate within our coastal waters.

“We have not had successful prosecution before but with this law in place, we are going to have a lot of successful prosecutions.

“That’s if we are not able to deter them from even getting involved in the criminal activities and Nigeria will be safer for people to trade,” he said.