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The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, has said that the partnership between the Agency and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) would bring the desired growth and development to the Nigerian maritime industry in particular, and to the Nigerian economy in general.
A statement by Isichei Osamgbi, head, Corporate Communications of NIMASA, a copy of which was made available to BDSUNDAY, said Peterside made the observation when he led NIMASA top management on a courtesy visit to the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Hameed Ali, a retired colonel, at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja, recently, where he described both leadership of the two agencies as sticklers for transparency while doing things that will serve the best interest of the country.
“The Nigerian Customs and NIMASA are both working to accomplish one purpose, which is to facilitate trade to our country, enhance the revenue of government and ensure that those who do business with us respect the laws of our land and that ultimately they don’t take advantage of our people. As we are all working towards a common purpose, this even becomes more glaring with the new leadership of our both agencies,” the DG said.
Peterside was also quoted to have informed the Customs Service boss that NIMASA has started a process of restructuring and repositioning for the good of the sector in order to make it more business friendly, thereby attracting more investors to the country.
“In NIMASA, there is a new wave of change in the same direction with the Customs. We are focused on delivering on our mandate to promote the participation of indigenous people in shipping in our country, give every Nigerian an opportunity and as well as ensure that our waterways are safe for business to thrive. In the course of doing our work, we have realised that it is inevitable that we must work with the Customs, that is the major reason for the visit”, he said.
According to the statement, the proposed areas of partnership are Nigerian Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS), the National Single Window Project and Maritime Security, all geared towards enhancing productivity in the sector, transparency, plugging revenue leakages and ensuring maritime security among others.
Hammed Ali, comptroller general of the Nigerian Customs Service, in his response, expressed the optimism that the renewed partnership between both organs of government would bring about the growth of the sector and the economy as a whole.
“Gone are the days that we feel we should do it alone; today the dynamics have changed, technology has given us a platform whereby we can achieve a lot, share information and also distribution of responsibility. I therefore, feel NIMASA is one of the organisations we need to partner with; so your coming is to strengthen the already existing relationship,” the CG said.
