The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) yesterday told the Senate Committee on Marine Transport that the agency added N70.8 billion into the Federal Government coffers in 2015.
Haruna Baba Jauro, acting director-general of NIMASA, who while receiving the committee members on oversight functions, said the agency also added about N51.9 billion collected into the Cabotage Fund.
The agency, which has set aside about 25 percent of its total revenue as maritime development fund that can only be utilised on the approval of the National Assembly, has also according to the DG, succeeded in allocating 5 percent of its revenue to funding the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron.
The director-general further said that the 2015 budget performance would not be high for obvious reasons such as change in management as well as the inability of the ministerial committee constituted afterwards, to evaluate the ongoing projects executed by the previous management and submit report.
“We hope that the report will come very soon to enable the current management to determine the status of the projects, amount that has been paid, balance to be refunded so as to know the projects worth continuity and those that would be discontinued,” he said.
The agency has invested into the development of manpower through the sponsorship of about 2600 cadets in various universities abroad, and building of Institute of Maritime Studies in six Nigerian universities.
In the area of maritime security, the NIMASA boss said the agency had succeeded in installing a satellite based maritime domain awareness/surveillance system, which has helped in enhancing safety of ships on the nation’s waterways; installation of coastal radar system and achieving about 80 percent compliance to the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.
Reacting to this, Ahmed Sani, chairman of the committee, said the visit was not only aimed at ensuring that the rules and regulations guiding the agency were properly observed, but to also ensure that the agency resources was prudently managed in line with the corruption free agenda of the Buhari-led administration.
According to him, the visit was purposely scheduled ahead of the passage of 2016 budget, as the Senate members would be evaluating the performance of the agency in line with the plans and projects that were identified to be undertaken by NIMASA in its 2015 budget.
This, the Senate committee chairman said, would enable the National Assembly to ensure that all that needed to be done for the economic growth, were properly and effectively executed.
