More countries are now expressing their readiness to back the human capacity building programmes of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).The agency, which remains the apex maritime regulatory authority in the country in line with the provisions of the NIMASA Act 2007.
Two countries with interest in the maritime industry recently indicated their readiness to back the agency to sustain its human capacity development efforts. They are Norway and Australia.
The Australian Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Angela Tierney, who dropped the hint in a recent visit to NIMASA in Lagos, lauded the human capacity drive of Agency.
She said her country was ready to go into functional partnership with NIMASA.
The envoy stated that Australia was particularly interested in the provision of technical support and human capacity development.
“We look forward to working with the agency in building the requisite capacity for the industry”, she said.
Also speaking, the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Rolf Ree, stated his country’s readiness for the provision of technical support to NIMASA towards realising the full potentials of the Nigerian maritime industry.
While receiving the Australian High Commissioner and the Norwegian Ambassador separately, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi said NIMASA would appreciate partnership with major maritime nations such as Australia and Norway particularly in the area of capacity building.
“Australia is a nation that enjoys high respect among the comity of maritime nations and partnership with your country will surely help us realise the potentials of building a competent workforce that is poised to take the Nigerian maritime sector to greater heights,” Akpobolokemi said.
He expressed his delight to the Norwegian ambassador, especially on “the support so far given the agency” by his country which he noted, had been of immense benefit to the Nigerian maritime local sector.
Akpobolokemi also said that the good relationship should be maintained so as to help Nigeria to continue to grow its maritime potential more effectively.
He assured the envoys of improvement in monitoring Nigeria’s maritime domain in real time using a satellite surveillance system that covers the whole of Nigeria’s coast and the Gulf of Guinea.
He noted that the progress in this area had boosted commercial activities from around the world in recent times. – Thisday.
