NIS President urges NIMASA to unbundle ship registration process

By Dapo Olawuni

President of Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS) Capt Tony Onaharigho has charged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to change its policy on ship registry by deregulating the maritime sector and put in place an open registry.

Capt Onaharigho who was recently appointed by the Liberian Maritime Administration as their Deputy Ship Registrar, spoke with our correspondent in Lagos yesterday ,advised the newly inaugurated ship registration committee of NIMASA to come up with measures to simplify the process of vessels adopting the Nigerian flag.

He lamented that registering a vessel into the Nigerian flag is too cumbersome, according to him, it takes six months to successfully register a vessel under the Nigerian flag, whereas in other countries, it takes not more than 24 hours.

He said that it is more beneficial for Nigeria to deregulate the maritime sector and operate an open registry because it would help the country launder its image and boost it’s chances on the International Maritime Organization (IMO)

While giving his advice to the NIMASA ship registry implementation committee headed by Eng Emmanuel Ilori which was inaugurated in Lagos recently, Capt Onaharigho said “It is unfortunate that they (the committee) don’t know me, though the Director General knows me very well, but assuming I am in that committee, I have so much input to give to them because I run several other flags as a Recognized Organization (RO)

“My company; Conarina Limited has about 31 countries in which we are special agents and RO, so I know how it works.
I have put so many vessels in Tanzania, put so many vessels on Togo flag and so many others. I also put vessels there in Nigerian flag”

“So, this committee should look into creating a deputy registrar in so many of these countries, maybe about three countries who can help them manage the flag in those countries”

“We are supposed to launder our flag by creating an open registry, if Nigeria can have an open registry, it would help to launder our flag to other part of the world. I have talked severally on the need to deregulate the maritime industry”

“If this is done, NIMASA functions will still be there, but what they would do is that NIMASA would coordinate the Deputy Registrars of the different class that are available in the world”

“I am a class surveyor and I own a class company, as I speak with you, I am about to sign an MoU with a South African class company to work with me on the Liberian flag, they are the ones that will run this axis of the world for me, South Africa, Namibia, Dubai” he said

Speaking on the benefits of an open registry to Nigeria, he said the country has had a bad image and reputation internationally as being 419’s, kidnappers and so on, but that a good reputation would be created if more vessels are running Nigerian flags, for example; Lagos, Abuja among others.

“Even people that do not know Nigeria will see our ship carrying cargo and entering Tokyo, China”

“Second benefit of an open registry is the financial gain, each vessel is charged per GRT for flag registration, the tariff is filled out in dollars, the money will be paid to Nigeria just for putting out flag on their ship, I am sure that with the cruse oil lifting we are doing here and our Cabotage, if NIMASA should put a law that any vessel that would pick up crude oil from Nigeria must carry Nigerian flag, if we do this, there would be so much money that those companies would pay to us for flying our flag”

“The third advantage is that if we deregulate the maritime industry, it would give employment to one half of the currently unemployed seafarers Nigeria and they would be highly paid and negotiate for higher salaries. In Liberia for example, the standard salary for an AB is the same thing all over the world”

“Also, it would lead to increase in ship acquisition, when shipowners see more vessels flying Nigerian flag, they would want to buy a vessel and put it under Nigerian flag”