News
NIMASA Opens Online Portal to Fight Forgery among Seafarers
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is not leaving any stone unturned on the fight against fake seafarers, as the Agency recently launched an online portal for verification of seafarers’ Certificates of Competency, (CoC), for Nigerian Seafarers.
The agency said the idea was to checkmate the increasing forage of certificate forgers.
“We have been faced with cases of people going on board to present a certificate not issued by us but now if you go on board you present a certificate and they take the number on the certificate to the portal and click it; the result will come out to show the authenticity or otherwise of the certificate instead of physically doing it, it is done online to make it easier”, indicated Engr. Vincent Udoye, an executive director of the Marine Safety and Seafarers Standards Department.
He noted that Nigeria was among the privileged few countries that have achieved the feat of launching portals for the verification of seafarers CoC.
“if you check the International Maritime Organization, (IMO), website Nigeria is among the privileged few to have achieved this feat of online verification”, observed Udoye, stating that the era of writing letters, or waiting for response from the agency to ask about the details of seafarers had run out.
A representative of the consultancy firm that developed the portal, Mr. Segun, gave the web address as www.nimasaseafarers.com
“Certificate number, picture, date of birth limitation date and some other relevant information about the seafarers is gotten.. The portal also has biometric and the certificate that was verify can be printed out if the need arises”, he explained
Highlighting the importance of the portal, NIMASA said that the portal would help capture Seafarers registered by the agency, Biometric personal details, employment history, professional qualification, mandatory, discharge and retirement of registered seafarers.
Also, the portal would help foreign shipping companies ascertain the standards and qualifications of Nigerian Seafarers before putting them on their vessels.
Meanwhile, the agency said it was deploying Search and Rescue (SAR) marshals at jetties, following increasing waves of attacks at the nations territorial waters and jetties.
The marshals would ensure that at every jetty, mandatory checks were carried out on boat operators’ safety measures.
Captain Ezekiel Agaba, executive director, Maritime Safety and Shipping Development (NIMASA), disclosed this, while calling stakeholders in the maritime industry in Lagos to ensure they provide conducive for the marshals to operate.
“What we intend to do is that we are having incidents of vessels capsizing due to overloading. Therefore we need to put some of the marshals in some of the locations to monitor safety precautions by the operators just as we have the road marshal”, he explained further.
EFCC
The African Development Bank Group last week approved an investment of €6.5 million in the Saviu II fund in order to support technology start-ups through their seed phase and first institutional fundraising, mainly in French-speaking Central and West Africa.
The Bank will invest €4.5 million as equity and €2 million as a first-loss hedging tranche on behalf of the European Commission, under the Boost Africa Programme.
This participation of the Bank Group will enable the Saviu II fund to give priority to companies with a strong technological or digital component.
Saviu II, the second investment vehicle of Saviu Partners, plans to invest between €500,000 and €3 million in about 20 technology or technology-oriented business-to-business start-ups in the seed phase or carrying out first institutional fundraising.
The Saviu II venture capital fund aims to make at least 60% of its commitments in the French-speaking countries of West and Central Africa: Côte d ‘Ivoire, Cameroon, Benin, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali.
The fund can also co-invest in promising technology companies in East Africa that have a strong team and business model, and whose strategy includes entering the market in French-speaking West African countries and establishing a strong presence there.
In addition, the fund will devote a dedicated envelope to pre-seed investments, focusing on minority equity investments, usually in co-investment with studios, incubators or other ecosystem partners.
Nigerian Government has signed a $1.3 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) via the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) to fund an alumina refinery, national geoscience mapping, and a strategic investment vehicle for mining growth.
Special Assistant to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Segun Tomori, said the refinery will process one million tonnes of bauxite yearly using a modern Bayer process, powered by an on-site gas-fired cogeneration plant.
Minister Dele Alake called it a transformative milestone boosting GDP, aligning with reforms that improve investment climate, regulations, and licensing to attract private capital. He directed agencies to fast-track permits.
The 20-year project at 95% utilization eyes 19 million tonnes total output, $1.2 billion annual GDP addition, $25 billion economic impact, and $8 billion forex earnings, per feasibility studies.
SMDF Executive Secretary Fatima Shinkafi termed it the agency’s biggest funding deal, supporting value-addition policy.
The partnership extends to geoscience mapping for mineral data, de-risking exploration, and a joint vehicle for mining assets.
Permanent Secretary Engr. Farouk Yabo praised the reforms. Shinkafi signed for government; AFC’s Franklin Edochie for the corporation, witnessed by AFC CEO Samaila Zubairu.
Tomori positioned it as Nigeria’s largest private mining investment and FDI magnet.
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