Interview

We Are Going To Reposition The Maritime Sector To Catalyze Nigeria’s Economy- Dakuku

Dr. Peterside Dakuku, Director-General, NIMASA

 

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) had its Corporate and Merit Awards recently in Lagos. It was a colourful event in which some of its dedicated and hard-working staff were rewarding for their outstanding performance towards the agency.

The awards which began three years ago is to encourage members of staff of the agency to put their best in service. Some staff who have served from 15 to 30 years were rewarded.

The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Peterside Dakuku, said in an interview during the event that operators now have absolute confidence in the current leadership of the maritime sector and the agency will continue to celebrate its employees.

Dakuku made it known that the ultimate goal of the maritime regulatory agency is to be known for excellence, efficiency and effectiveness which will be driven by its core values.

Excerpts:

How has it been watching all the plans playing out at the Corporate and Merit Awards Night?

It has been an amazingly wonderful day and am happy that our people are in high spirit, they are enthusiastic and passionate. Everybody loves to be appreciated and we have just done that this evening by appreciating and recongnising our people. But not just our people, we are strong because of our stakeholders. So, this night too, we celebrated our stakeholders who are doing great things in the industry. Today, Nigeria can boast of having the second biggest tonnage in the continent of Africa because we have ship owners who are acquiring vessels and are doing exploits in that area.

Today, we can boast of having an amazing port control record because of our people and we can boast of so many things due to our people. We also use the opportunity to recognize our people that have spent 15, 20, 25 and 30 years in the service of the agency and by extension the service of our father land.

You can see the spirit in the hall that people indeed have faith in the maritime industry going forward, we will play our role in helping catalyze Nigeria economy. People have absolute confidence in the current leadership of the maritime sector that they can help fulfil the vision of the country as a maritime hub. We are soon going to roll out a long-time strategy on the maritime sector, we intend to reposition the sector as well. The truth is that the opportunities are endless. The passion is there, we have men and women who ready to help Nigeria fulfil her dreams of a great maritime nation.

For members of staff who did not win anything today and are still serving and may not have been doing too well, what will be your advice for them in 2020?

We are in a new NIMASA, two years ago somebody was employee of the year, last year, it was another person, this year is Constance Omagbemi, next year it will certainly be another person. Every month we celebrate our people and we celebrate employee of the month. We celebrate employees who emerged in their various departments. So, every month we keep on celebrating our people. For us our ultimate goal is clear, we want to be known for excellence, efficiency and effectiveness. This is driven by our core values.

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