The director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Bashir Jamoh says the agency has commenced full digitalisation processes for all vessels calling at Nigerian seaports.
The director general said in a statement that physical transactions concerning sailing certificates and cargo manifest processing were being done way with and called on all the stakeholders to embrace the agency’s initiative by visiting the NIMASA portal.
He explained that automation was aimed at further reducing human interaction, improve efficiency and block revenue leakages.
“In line with the Federal Government’s Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business, we are committed to improving turnaround time of vessels, reduction of human interface in majority of our transactions with our stakeholders and this is in our bid to ensure transparency and professionalism that the sector requires to grow.
“We have improved our operational relationship with our sister agencies; we now convey sailing clearance for Vessels to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) electronically. We also receive and process manifests electronically. This has improved efficiency leading to improvement in the turn-around-time of vessels calling at the nation’s Ports.
“Right now we have ensured that the process of submitting and processing manifests is reduced from 72 hours to 5 hours for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and larger container vessels whereas it would only take two hours or less for smaller vessels). These are marked improvements and it is still work in progress, “he said.
Jamoh further stated that the benefits that would be derived from the total digitalisation of all the agency’s processes expected to be completed this year would be enormous not just for the stakeholders, but also for the country as a whole as it would help to improve balance of trade as well as improved commercial shipping activities in Nigeria.
