The Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, has said that the agency will continue to work towards repositioning the maritime industry for greater efficiency in line with global best practices.
Speaking while receiving an excellence award bestowed on him by City People Media Group for his “sterling leadership qualities in his two years in office” at the weekend in Lagos, Peterside noted that the maritime industry has the capacity to catalyse the economic growth of the country.
According to him, “We are not going to rest on our oars until we get to the point where everybody acknowledges the fact that the maritime industry is indeed a catalyst for accelerated economic development.”
Peterside, while highlighting some of the achievement of the agency in his two years in office, said a total of 289 Nigerian cadets have so far been sent for sea time training aboard ocean going vessels.
He said, “We are not only contributing to the economic development of the country, creating employment for our people, but giving people opportunity that for a life time, they will remember.
“We have made modest achievement which is being celebrated in every part of the country. For the first time, we are putting 289 persons on board ocean going vessels to do sea time. For the first time in recent times, we have made contributions that are quite substantial to the consolidated revenue fund.
“We have release the maritime forecast, given impetus to investors that there are limited opportunities in the industry. We are recognised in Africa and that is why we have been given leadership role.”
He said the award bestowed on him, will serve as an opportunity for the agency to begin to galvanise people to maximise the benefit inherent in the blue economy.
“The blue economy is multi sectoral and everybody who has something to do in that space must all come together and share a common vision. We have enormous potential in the blue economy within our economy, not just because we have coastline and mineral resources but again we have a set of people who truly can contribute to the development of the blue economy,” he said.
