Port Inspection Drops By 29.65%

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has said that the total Ports State Inspection for the year 2020 was 510 out of 4,728 vessels that called at the nation’s ports in the year under review.

This represents a 29.65 percent decrease when compared to 2019 which had a PSI of 726 vessels out of the 5,035 vessels that called at the port. This is a development by  10 percent improvement from the preceding year and a 14.42 per cent of the total ship call.

The agency disclosed this in a document titled, “NIMASA Performance Tripod” published that the decrease was due to the Covid-19 pandemic which negatively impacted the PSI.

The document stated that in 2019, the agency performed a total of 2,580 flag state inspections, representing 2,123 renewal inspections, 276 condition surveys, and 181 random flag state surveys.

This, it said, showed a 49 per cent increase from the 1,737 total flag state inspections carried out in 2018 comprising 1,241 flag state renewal inspections, 381 condition surveys, and 115 random flag state surveys.

It read in part, “However, the decrease in 2020 is attributed to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, the agency recorded 22 marine incidents in 2019 and 21 in 2018. Investigations were carried out while some are still on-going. NIMASA has put in tremendous efforts to mitigate the tide of maritime insecurity in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea through several maritime domain awareness interventions and collaborative efforts”

The agency said that more vessels were surveyed for flag registration in 2021 compared to the number of vessels surveyed in the corresponding year off 2020.

“Comparing the number of vessels surveyed for flag registration relative to the previous year, it can be observed that the 2021 figure (489 vessels) is 43.6 per cent higher than the total number of condition surveys carried out in 2020 (276 vessels)” the statement added.