Maritime nations all over the world evolve strategies and methodologies of modernising ship registry for the purpose of enhancing national tonnage.
In the pursuit of goal tonnage enhancement and transformation, nations adopt cut-edge technology both direct and indirect marketing of the national flag and other known effective methods in their registration of vessels.
Of course, every maritime country however adopt strategies that influence specific objectives of the country and such objectives are not expected to threaten the interest of global maritime.
Besides the drive for local tonnage to achieve desired goal, the maritime nation players have also adopted systems of close or open registry of vessels. The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by the statute establishing it is responsible for organising, shipping activities and development. It was in consonance of this that late 2008, NIMASA made its intention known to the registration of ships in Nigeria.
The Nigerian ship registration office performs flag state responsibilities of NIMASA, as enshrined in Section 16 of the Merchant Shipping Act of 2007. Section 28 (2) of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Act, 2007 also established the office of the registrar of ship and that of the deputy registrar of ship.
The NIMASA ship registry unit conducts all flag registration duty from the head office location of the agency as guaranteed in its regulation.
NIMASA Act of 2007, in accordance with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) global practices, anticipates the efficiency of the Nigerian Ship Registration Office especially when operators can access the services from other operational location.
The creation of the office of the deputy registrars of ship, many believe is a demonstration of the agency’s commitment to structure the Nigerian ship registration office to reflect the changing trend in the modern international maritime operations.
The decision of the Agency to formally establish ship registration desks in Warri and Calabar was to complement registration service offered from Lagos and Port Harcourt as provided in the NIMASA Act of 2007.
By this development, the ship registration service in Nigeria have been taken to the door steps of vessel owners, even as it enables Nigerians in diaspora to take advantage of the increased accessibility offered by the decentralisation through any of the mentioned locations to fly the Nigerian flag.
Preliminary modernisation programmes and measures taken by the agency have resulted in the electronic up-load of over 3,200 vessels of different categories of data being integrated to the web link of the agency. Daily vessel registration details are transferred electronically to the data base with the aim of updating available web information.
NIMASA’s modernisation and transformation programmes could also be appreciated in the area of mutual sharing of vessels details between the agency and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The information sharing approach influences the NNPC and other international oil companies for Nigerian flagged vessels in the award of contract in the current cabotage regime.
The benefits for registration and decentralisation services include enhanced access to registration service, reduced cost of logistics particularly for up-country vessel owners and fast tracked vessels registration process amongst others.
Nigerian ship registration office has also developed relevant templates to guide applicants on-line. On completion of the automation process, applicants are expected to download relevant ship registration forms, upload required documents for vessels registration, effect payment of registration via an on-line payment engine as well as take delivery of provisional certificates of registry on-line.
However, the modernisation of the ship registration process has been extended to cabotage registration. Subject to applicant’s submission of all documents, the Nigerian ship registration office developed on-line templates to achieve cabotage registration of vessels in 48 hours.
The deployment of multi-skilled human capital by NIMASA is another strategy for meeting the technical, administrative and legal requirement. This move informed NIMASA to articulate a “Fly Nigeria” initiative embodying the genuine principles of safety, as a condition for flying the Nigerian flag.
The overall end result of the modernisation and transformation programme is the reformation of processes and procedures of flag state toward promoting efficiency and unparallel advisory services to the external public of the Nigerian ship registration office. Even at times, the Agency has not relented at directing its efforts at professionalising the ship registry as critical vehicle for service efficiency.
Staff of the registry office visit some foreign ship registries, including the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency of the United Kingdom and the Singaporean ship registry office as part of efforts to update knowledge and enhance service delivery.
Similarly, working attachments to the Panama, Hellenic and Malaysian ship registry was also pursued towards full professionalisation of the ship registry, to expose staff of Nigerian ship registry office to challenges of an ICT driven registration services.
Demonstrating commitment to global maritime safety, NIMASA’s efforts to approve the America-Bureau of Shipping, Bureau Veritas and Lloyds registry among others was seen as a welcome development to classify societies for conventional vessels of 500 tonnes and above.
Although much efforts have been made by the agency towards the transformation and modernisation of Nigerian ship registry, even as it was committed to eliminate delay of the past and engender new culture of professionalism and efficiency in service delivery, a lot more is needed to attain and sustain full transformation and modernisation of Nigeria flag ship registration.
In this era of cabotage, and with the quest to be one of the leading maritime nations, it may not be out of place for Nigeria to shift from theories to actual accomplishment goals in this direction.
The international players are on the watch to se Nigeria totally transformed and modernise her flag vessel registry, and the task is before NIMASA.