Nigeria’s rising war risk insurance premium on vessels worrisome, NIMASA cries out

THE Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has expressed concern over Nigeria’s rising war risk insurance premium charged by vessels coming into the nations territorial waters, stating that unverified reports on maritime crime within the Gulf Of Guinea combine to misrepresent the nations maritime security to the outside world.

Disclosing this in Lagos when the Shipping Correspondent Association of Nigeria (SCAN) paid him a courtesy visit over the weekend, the NIMASA Director General, Dakuku Adol Peterside explained that with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) elections coming up later in the year, Nigeria cannot afford to lose out due to unverified reports concerning her maritime security.

According to the NIMASA DG who was represented by the agency’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, “I think we need to be more professional in the way we report the maritime industry, more so, we are in an IMO election year, and unverified reports could tarnish the nation’s chances of getting reelected into the IMO Council.

“Recently, we were in a top management meeting, and one of the top management members read out a report that says about 88 piracy attacks have occurred within our waters. It is important that we get our facts right before reporting sensitive issues like that. Nigeria is a member of the Gulf of Guinea. There are over 20 countries in the Gulf of Guinea. Anytime any maritime crime happens within the Gulf of Guinea, it is viewed as if it happened within Nigeria’s waters because she is the biggest country within the Gulf of Guinea.

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“The international community views Nigeria as the country that produces most of the maritime crimes within the Gulf of Guinea. It is important that journalists report happenings accurately, because a situation where a maritime crime happens in Togo or any part of Ghana, Cameroon etc, and it is reported that it happened within Nigeria’s territorial waters, this will continue to send the wrong signal to the international community. It will continue to portray Nigeria as one of those countries that people are scared to come to.

“Already, we are paying huge war risk premiums in terms of insurance, and we are currently the highest payees of war risk premium all over the world because of the dangers already attached to our own territorial waters. When you compare the cost of freight from United States of America (USA) to Ghana and that of the USA to Nigeria, you will find out that Nigeria pays more than Ghana even when the distance is the same. At the end of the day, Nigerians are the losers because we all pay the price of the huge cost of insurance premium since it is transferred to the consumers on the streets.

“Accurate reporting is very important because when that is done, the country’s image is well projected. When we go to IMO, those reports are the things they check to know the position of the country from the last election. The IMO election is in December, and we are already in March. So we have about nine months to prepare, and we cannot do it alone. We need the corporation of the media to achieve our aim at the IMO election.”