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A total of 937 deficiencies were recorded by the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central African Region, during ship Inspections in 2020.
The statistics as published the the Abuja MoU Annual Report for 2020, also revealed that the 2020 figure on deficiencies is higher than the 2019 figure of 719.
Correspondingly, the total number of 252 inspections-with-deficiencies is higher than the 222 figures of 2019, while the percentage inspections with-deficiencies of 10.8 in 2020 represents 31.1% increase above the 2019 figures of 8.24%.
The report states that the analysis of this result could be a combination of many factors including the fact that Port State Officers are more thorough and have improved their inspection skills, as well as the frightful observation that performances of seafarers took a dive due to COVID-19.
According to the report, a total of 50,328 and 52,182 number of vessels visited the region is 2019 and 2020 respectively, but the increase in the number of vessels calling at the region did not directly translate to increase in the inspection rate due to the direct impact of COVID-19 on physical visitation as noted by all the regions and maritime nations.
Despite of the pandemic, fourteen (14) Member States in Abuja MoU region submitted PSC inspection reports namely: Benin, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Togo.
A total of 252 of the inspections conducted generated 937 deficiencies and the most notable deficiencies were related to: Ship’s certificates and documents 12.91%; SOLAS Convention 55.7%; MARPOL Convention 8.1%; STCW Convention 2.6%; Load Line Convention 3.2%; ILO (MTC 2006) 13.2%.
2337 inspections were carried out on 2164 individual ships and 9 were detained during the year, resulting in a 57% decrease in number of detentions when compared to 2019 figures of 21 detentions.
The detention percentage per inspection of 0.39% in 2020 gives a 50% decrease below the 0.78% recorded in 2019. The spread of one deficiency for every 3.8 inspections in 2019 decreased to 2.5 inspections per deficiency in 2020.
Meanwhile, the region recorded a 13.3% decrease in inspection from 2,695 in 2019. The same number of Administrations, which are fourteen (14), submitted inspection reports in the year under review as in 2019.
The total ship calls to the fourteen (14) member States that carried out PSC inspections are 50,328 and 52,182 in 2019 and 2020 respectively. While the total inspections carried out by these member States are 2,695 and 2,337 in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Therefore, the percentage inspections per ship calls in the region are 5.36% and 4.15% in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
