The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has commenced total digital manifest management regime for all vessels calling at all Nigerian ports.
The physical transactions concerning sailing certificates and cargo manifest processing are being phased out as stakeholders are encouraged to fully embrace the agency’s initiative by visiting the NIMASA portal.
Director General of the agency, Bashir Jamoh said the automation is aimed at further reducing human interaction, improve efficiency and block revenue leakages.
“In line with the Federal Government’s Executive Order on ease of doing business, we are committed to improving turnaround time of vessels, reduction of human interface in majority of our transactions with our stakeholders and this is in our bid to ensure transparency and professionalism that the sector require to grow.
“We have improved our operational relationship with our sister agencies, as we speak, we have made tremendous progress in our determination to convey sailing clearance for vessels to NPA electronically. We also receive and process manifests electronically,” he said.
“Right now we have ensured that the process of submitting and processing manifests is reduced from 72 hours to five hours for VLCCs (very large crude carriers) and larger container vessels whereas it would only take two hours or less for smaller vessels.”
The NIMASA DG noted that the benefits that would be derived from the total digitalisation of all the agency’s processes expected to be completed by 2022 would be enormous not just for the stakeholders, but for the country including helping to improve balance of trade, and improved commercial shipping activities in Nigeria.