The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is hosting maritime administrators from 30 countries to improve its role as a global player, its director-general, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said.
Peterside, in a statement by the organisation’s image maker, Isichei Osamgbi, said Nigeria would host the 3rd Conference of the Association of Heads of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA Conference) in Abuja, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, from April 19 to 21.
The meeting will be hosted in conjunction with International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
It will bring together major maritime administrators and leading stakeholders in Africa to discuss ways of improving the maritime sector on the continent.
The statement reads: “The IMO delegation of five will be led by Mr. Kitack Lim, the Secretary General of IMO, which is a United Nations specialised agency that regulates shipping globally.
“The hosting of this conference in Nigeria is in line with the economic diversification agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, and the repositioning agenda of the present Management to make Nigerian maritime industry a leading light in Africa and the global maritime sector.”
Peterside said it would open new opportunities for unemployed youths, as well as unlock the potentials in the maritime sector.
The statement went on: “This is just as the conference could serve as a platform towards Nigeria’s re-election into the IMO Council seat later in November this year,” the statement added.
“The benefits of hosting the conference cannot be over emphasised, it will equally avail stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime industry an opportunity to rub minds with their counterparts across Africa and the globe, and further chart a way forward for the African maritime sector. It will effectively signal the arrival of the country in the global maritime arena as a respectable global voice.”
THE NATION
