NIMASA DG defends budget before senators

The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has defended the agency’s 2017 budget before lawmakers, saying that it is tailored towards the strategic growth and other development initiatives of the maritime sector.

Peterside said this during the budget defence session, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Marine Transport.

At the session chaired by Senator Ahmed Yerima, the NIMASA DG stated that the agency was committed to actualising its core mandates and growing the maritime sector for the benefit of indigenous operators and the entire nation.

A statement quoted him as saying that the agency targeted strategic growth in five critical areas in the year namely; maintaining maritime safety and security to bring piracy to its lowest level; maintenance of a clean maritime environment and enhanced port state control; enhancing human and infrastructural capacity; as well as sanitising the maritime environment to eliminate sharp practices, while increasing revenue generation for economic growth.

While assuring the committee members that revenue leakages will be plugged through the agency’s digitalisation processes, he noted that NIMASA would also embark on an aggressive debt recovery programme to enhance the efficiency of the maritime sector.

“It is expected that the dollar rate will drop drastically through Federal Government’s intervention policies and in turn allow room for more investors. Let me also assure Nigerians that the present management of NIMASA is committed to ensuring transparency in all its processes, accountability and probity in the discharge of its mandate towards making Nigeria a hub of maritime activities in Africa,” Peterside added.