Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside says the agency and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) are “partners in progress” in bringing desired growth and development to the Nigerian maritime industry and by extension the Nigerian economy.
Peterside said this when he visited Customs Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali in Abuja.
“The Nigerian Customs and NIMASA are both working to accomplish one purpose, which is to facilitate trade to our country, enhance the revenue of government and ensure that those who do business with us respect the laws of our land and that ultimately they don’t take advantage of our people. As we are all working towards a common purpose, this even becomes more glaring with the new leadership of our both agencies,” he said.
He said NIMASA has commenced the process of restructuring and repositioning.
“In NIMASA there is a new wave of change in the same direction with the Customs. We are focused on delivering on our mandate to promote the participation of indigenous people in shipping in our country, give every Nigerian an opportunity and as well as ensure that our waterways are safe for business to thrive.
“In the course of doing our work, we have realized that it is inevitable that we must work with the Customs, that is the major reason for the visit,” he stated.
In his response, Ali said the renewed partnership between both agencies will promote growth of the maritime sector and the economy as a whole.
He said, “Gone are the days that we feel we should do it alone, today the dynamics have changed, technology has given us a platform whereby we can achieve a lot, share information and also distribution of responsibility, I therefore feel NIMASA is one of the organisations we need to partner with so your coming is to strengthen the already existing relationship.”
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.