The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has reiterated it commitment to building a robust maritime sector and to contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
NIMASA Director General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, who stated this at the City People Media Group’s 21st award ceremony in Lagos at the weekend, said the Nigerian maritime sector has the capacity to catalyse economic growth.
Dakuku who won the “Award of Excellent Leadership in Public Service”, said the award was an indication that the efforts of the agency in repositioning the sector had not gone unnoticed.
In his words, “This award means a whole lot because it shows that Nigerians acknowledge the efforts that we are making to ensure a cleaner ocean for safe and secure shipping. Also, this will spur us to keep doing our best so as to have a robust maritime sector capable of catalysing and impacting the growth and development of the economy”.
He disclosed that in the past two years, NIMASA for the first time was able to put over 250 cadets onboard ocean-going vessel to do seatime training, making them employable.
He added that NIMASA also went a step further to release the maritime industry forecast, which will serve as a compass to investors for the year 2018 and 2019.