Safe waterways: Stakeholders laud NIMASA DG’s reforms

STAKEHOLDERS have applauded the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, for the various reforms introduced to guarantee safer waterways for vessels in Nigeria.

They particularly described the acquisition and installation of new ship demolition equipment worth N2.5 billion installed at the new ultra-modern shipyard (jetty).

Speaking with Journalists in Port Harcourt, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Uni-Trident Group, Prince Chukwuma Obiorah, said in the last two years as NIMASA Boss, Peterside has worked tirelessly to ensure safer navigable waterways in Nigeria for vessels.

Uni-Trident Group is a leading indigenous company in the marine support and logistics industry and also a major player in the steel recycling sector.

Obiorah commended Dakuku Peterside for his effort in revamping and ensuring safe waterways for vessels in Nigeria.

He also lauded the agency’s achievement in ensuring the removal of thousands of abandoned and wrecked vessels that littered the Nigerian waterways thus posing a serious threat, danger and harm to the environment.

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He said: “In the last two years NIMASA has taken steps in the Maritime sector which are unprecedented, and one area that the Agency led by the Dr Peterside has focused on is identifying the dangers posed by the presence of thousands of abandoned ships along the Nigerian waterways, which also have a lot of negative environmental implication for the country”.

Similarly, at the unveiling of some new ship demolition equipment installed at its new ultra-modern shipyard/Jetty, the Managing Director of Goldenvale Nigeria Co, the parent company of Uni-Trident Group, Mr Malcolm Amachree, on a tour of the facilities at the Jetty Iwofe, Rumuolumeni Town in Port Harcourt reiterated the company’s position on the commitment to collaborate with NIMASA in achieving its goals.

He noted that all the various subsidiaries of the Company were very interested in working with NIMASA on adopting innovative and technologically driven methods to help quickly and in an environmentally sound way to get rid of the hundred of derelicts and abandoned ships dotting the Nigerian waterways.

Obiorah said the new equipment installed at a cost no less than N2.5 billion, the facility now has the capacity to dismantle and scrap 3 shipping vessels at the same time while adhering to the best international standard practices.

He further said reassured that all the companies constituting the Group of Companies places high value to the protection of the Nigerian environmental ecosystem.