The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has described workers of the agency as strategic partners to whose welfare it is committed.
Peterside, who spoke when the leadership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) led by the President General, Comrade Anthony Nted Emmanuel paid courtesy visit to the Agency’s Headquarters in Lagos, said that maritime workers are very important to the development of the maritime sector and by extension the Nigerian economy.
He commended the leadership of MWUN for the role played in the past in maintaining industrial peace in the sector and that the impact of a crisis ridden maritime sector on the Nigerian economy cannot be over emphasised.
The Director General said that Maritime Workers are the Agency’s strategic partners and that NIMASA will ensure the training of dockworkers as well as create an enabling environment for them to work.
“We consider maritime workers our strategic partners whose input, support and dedication we cherish. Our role therefore is to ensure that they work under the right conditions that are in line with the ILO and IMO instruments.”
Dr. Peterside said that the process of Dockworkers registration and issuance of biometric identity cards is on-going, saying: “We have already initiated the process of the issuance of biometric identity cards for Dockworkers as part of our automation process in line with our digital transformation strategy”.
In his response, the President General of MWUN commended NIMASA’s Management for its new drive of ensuring a stakeholders’ driven maritime sector.
He advised the management of the Agency to pay more attention to training of dockworkers and their welfare even as he stressed the need to revisit the pooling system of dockworkers which was very effective in the monitoring of activities of the maritime workers in the Ports and on board vessels by relevant Agencies.
It would be recalled that NIMASA recently mediated in the dispute between the Dockworkers and the operators of the ENL terminal in order to continue to ensure that the workers’ interests are protected and ensure that industrial harmony is maintained in the maritime industry. [myad]
