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Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is phasing out physical transactions concerning sailing certificates and cargo manifest processing regime for all vessels calling at all Nigerian ports.
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The agency in a statement by Assistant Director, Public Relations, Osagie Edward, said all such transactions are now digitalized in a way that will now drive speed and efficiency as well as improve the balance of trade and commercial shipping activities in the country.
With the digital manifest management regime now in full operations, NIMASA has asked all vessels owners and other stakeholders to leverage the new platform by visiting the NIMASA portal.
According to Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, the agency remains committed to improving turnaround time of vessels and reduction of human interface in the majority of its transactions with stakeholders in line with the Federal Government’s Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business.
The automation is aimed at reducing human interaction, improving efficiency and blocking revenue leakages, said Edward.
“We have improved our operational relationship with our sister agencies. We have made tremendous progress in our determination to convey sailing clearance for Vessels to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’ electronic. We also receive and process manifests electronically,” said Jamoh.
“Right now we have ensured that the process of submitting and processing manifests is reduced from 72 hours to 5hours for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and larger container vessels, whereas it would only take two hours or less for smaller vessels, you would agree with me that these are marked improvement and its still work in progress,” he added.
