MARITIME NEWS ROUNDUP

Nigerian Ports Authority For Scrapping
If a bill recently sent to the National Assembly for consideration by president Olusegun Obasanjo sails through, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, may be scrapped and replaced with the Lagos Ports and the Habour Authority and Nigerian Delta Ports and Harbour authority respectively. The two autonomous ports and harbour authorities are to own, manage, control and administer ports on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria, each with responsibility for one or more ports within a specific geographical area. Meanwhile as a prelude to the scrapping NPA managements has deployed 15 general managers and 8 other senior officers, a move described as an interim arrangement in line with the ongoing ports reforms and the comolidation achievements recoded so far.

JOMALIC AND NMA FUSE.
The proposed fusion of the Joint maritime labour industrial council (JOMALIC) and the National Maritime Authority (NMA), which had remained only a proposal, some time became a reality recently when the two bodies merged giving birth to a fresh outfit, National Administration and Safety Agency (NAMASA). This move in part of the reform programme of the federal government in the maritime sector. NAMASA'S board has Alhaji Tijani Ramadan former JOMALIC boss as chairman while Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro, a notable maritime lawyer is the Director General. Mrs. Usoro leads the new Management team comprising Engr. Oliver Ogbuagu as Executive Director, Operations, in charge of Administration Headquarters of NAMASA remains MNA's former corporate headquarters on Burma Road, Apapa.

NAMASA TO COLLECT 2% SURCHARGE FROM COASTAL VESSELS.
An important aspect of the 2003 National Inland and Coastal Shipping Act also known as the Cabotage Law is to be fully implemented by the Federal Government. This core provision is that all vessels operating in Nigeria's coastal waters are to pay a 2% surcharge to the federal government. The implementing Agency, the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NAMASA is to collect the money for every contract executed by ships operating within the areas covered by the law.

DESTINATION INSPECTION HAS FAILED.
A frontline freight-forwarder and former publicity secretary, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Price Olayiwola Shittu has passed a failure verdict on the Destination Inspection scheme introduced in the sector by the federal government in January 2006. the reason: the major players in the regime clearing agents were not carried along in packaging the entire process. "Destination Inspection has failed. It is not working because the real operation are not involved'' Chairman of ANLCA'S Association Electoral Committee (ASECO) was speaking while delivering a paper entitled "the vital link'' at a one day shipping career summit put together by ships and ports communication ltd. He regretted that Nigerian ports were concessioned to people who are not ready to do the job.

UNCERTAINTY IS THE MOOD AT NPA
For the more or less skeletal staff left at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) wait- and- see has become the disposition. Reason: it could be the turn of anybody to be served a sack letter any day. At the corporate headquarters of the parastatal on Marina, Lagos, the few available staff now count days: whose turn is it going to be next time? Part of the reform programme in the Maritime sector is the concessioning of the ports to private operators and the demosizing of the work force. For now, over 8000 staff has been laid off with many more to go in future.

SONCAP INITIATIVE DISCORRAGES CONTRABANDS
The initiative known as standards Organization of Nigeria Conforming Assessment Programme, SONCAP, recently involved by the Standard Organization of Nigeria has been described as government fresh attempt to ensure that substandard goods are not allowed into country. Industry Minister, Fedelis Tapgun, declared this in Lagos at a workshop on the implementation status of the Destination Inspection scheme. The manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN organized the workshop. He said the private sector should fall in line with the government reform programme, particularly the reforms in the maritime sector with the concessionnig of the port operations for private hands. "The role of importer is not to hamper government fiscal policies but to attain efficient port delivery mechanism in the nations seaports. It is of not those manufacturers in some cases spend two to three weeks at the waiting for the management of customs to make it's officers available to escort their goods to their warehouses in the new fast-track procedures aired at clearing the current port decongestion'', said Mrs. Aisha Dankani who stood in for the Minister.

CHEVERON TAKE NOTE
A frequent armed robbery case in the serene in vicinity of chevron corporate headquarters in Ajah along the Lekki- Epe expressway has lately become a matter of serious concern. And chevron, particularly, must see it so. The victims of such incidents are believed to be people who have one business transaction or the other to do with the multinational oil company. It is either the fellow is an expatriate oil worker, a contractor, a visitor or a staff beside other people who ordinarily commune between Lagos and Epe on this ever-busy road. Reports reaching D&E indicate that the robberies may be the hand work of a well organized syndicate who take out time to monitor comes to do what business and at what time in the area. They carefully pick who and when to like so as to do a clean job. Recently, a man stepped out from one of the numerous business office along the expressway, a shorting distance to the chevron roundabout and picked a taxi shortly after, he was trailed and rubbed at gunpoint. He was said to have lost about N200,000 among many other personal effects. Robberies in this area happens despite the heavy presence of chevron  private security outfit and the regular police nearby. Can chevron on its own to something more serious at least to save many who throng her offices for various transactions? Her corporate image, it must be stressed, is at stake

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