Nigeria’s vessel inspection rises 81%, regional body commends NIMASA
Lagos -- Nigeria’s Port State Control, PSC, ratings shot up by 81.7 percent with a total 636 ship inspections in 2018 against 350 recorded in 2017. The development has consolidated Nigeria’s leadership in this vital maritime safety indicator.
Maritime nation's regulators use PSC instrument for the inspection of foreign ships in their ports to verify that the
condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with these rules.
In Nigeria, this role is played by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.
In the African continent, South Africa came second with a total of 327 inspections for the year under review, while Senegal came third with 270 inspections.
The report, captured in the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central Africa region otherwise known as the ‘Abuja MoU’ for 2018, also showed that Nigeria dominated the detailed inspection of vessels with 13
exercises out of the total 14 carried out in the continent in 2018.
Consequently, Nigeria effected the detention of 13 vessels, apparently as a result of the deficiencies discovered during the detailed inspections.
However, the report indicated a significant rise in recorded deficiencies across the continent as 727 vessel deficiencies were recorded in 2018 as against 587 recorded in 2017.
Consequently, in 2018, Nigeria came in the forefront of reported deficiencies with a total of 339 vessel deficiencies as against 193 recorded by South Africa and 122 by Senegal.
The Secretary-General of Abuja MoU, Mrs. Mfon Usoro, said that analysis of the MoU's performance between 2010 and 2018 indicates unbroken incremental improvement by member nations’ Administrations of the MoU in every aspect of PSC activity, evidencing the commitment by member states to rid their waters of substandard ships, improve the standard of welfare of shipboard officers and crew and stem the pollution of the region's waters.