Dakuku Peterside, NIMASA Boss
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside has described maritime sector as the soul of Nigeria’s economy.
Peterside, who was at the just concluded Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas stated oil and gas sector is often referred to as the heart of the Nigerian economy without taking cognisance of the fact that the maritime sector remains the soul of the economy. He stated without maritime, oil and gas exploration might just be in vain.
The NIMASA helmsman made the clarification, when he delivered a paper titled: “Local content and cabotage regime implementation in the Nigerian oil and gas Industry as a cost reduction strategy,” at a workshop organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) on the sidelines of Conference in the oil city of the United States.
As stated by him, “aside the fact that most of the oil and gas exploration, which is the major revenue earner of the country is done in the maritime environment, vessels are needed to transport these products from one point to the other, making the maritime sector integral part of the whole economic process.”
While calling on investors to commit more resources to building local content in the maritime industry, Peterside assured operators that it is in their interest to build local capacity, saying an investment in this regard will certainly be mutually beneficial to all parties.
He expressed concern, that NIMASA has been grossly misunderstood and assured stakeholders of the commitment of the new Management to engender the development of local content in the maritime industry, through the review of the Cabotage Act to make it more beneficial to Nigerians.
Guardian