Dry Dock: Iheanacho indicts NIMASA for being regulator, player in maritime industry
Former Minister of Interior and chairman of Worldwide genesis Shipping Company, Capt; Emma Iheanacho has berated the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for investing in Dry Dock business whereas it still remains a regulator.
In an interview on Monday, Iheanacho said “To me, I think it is wrong for a regulator to suddenly become a player”.
NIMASA is a regulator in the maritime industry overseeing the sector’s safety standarfds and operational activities.
He said having invested in Dry Docking, “there are tempting chances that NIMASA will some start to buy ships and begin competition with some of us in the business and in the same time remain our regulator”.
It would recalled that NIMASA recently acquired a modular floating dockyard contrary to stakeholders view that the agency should remain an agency of the government and not a player in the industry it was set up to regulate.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside has been finding it hot since NIMASA took the delivery of the facility.
Explaining more, he said “It is not true that government has scraped the establishment of the proposed floating shipyard or dock yard in the Delta area; it is absolutely not correct”.
“Recall that before I joined NIMASA team, they had already established a business case for a floating dry-dock where owners of ship can dry-dock their vessels from time to time.
“85 per cent or 90 per cent of those who own vessels dry-dock their vessels outside the country and we felt it encourages capital flight and that it doesn’t support the industry. So, it was at that point that we got into a relationship with a firm in Netherland to build a floating dry dock in the Netherland and in Romania. That project is on; when we joined the NIMASA team, we resolved to continue and follow it to its logical completion.
