NPA Laments War Risk Insurance on Nigeria-Bound Cargoes

By ZION Olalekan |

The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hadiza Bala Usman has said that war risk insurance premium placed on vessels calling at Nigerian ports, especially due to piracy and unrest in the Nigerian Delta region has led to high cost of cargo importation.

She encouraged the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to ensure the piracy threat is addressed in the next six months through inter agency collaboration.

Hadiza stated this while delivering a paper titled “Driving the Change Agenda through Freight Forwarding” at the Prince Olayiwola Shittu Colloquium at 68 and Book Presentation which held in Lagos on Monday.

Hadiza lamented that the war insurance that vessels are mandated to collect before coming into Nigerian waters has translated into high cost of importation of goods into the country.

She however assured that NPA would partner Navy, NIMASA and the marine police in addressing the scourge of piracy on Nigerian waters.

Speaking, the NPA MD said “We sought to collaborate with the Nigerian Navy and other agencies of government that are mandated to provide security within our waters, the NPA, NIMASA and the Navy are agencies that collaborate together with the support of the maritime police”

“One of the concerns that have bedevilled our port is the high cost of bringing in cargoes and this is attributable to the insurance policies that vessels have to take before coming into our waterways”

“Already, we have a war insurance that vessels have to take before coming into our waters and this clearly translates into high cost of importation of goods into the country”

“NIMASA is currently deploying a strong security architecture to address the issue, we hope that within the next six months we are going to see a reduced activity of the pirates on our waters especially along the Nigerian Delta Region, this is something that we are all anxious to have and we believe that NIMASA would be able to deploy with the support of the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies”.