NAN-H-59
Restructuring
By Lucy Nwachukwu
Abuja, Jan. 15, 2017 (NAN) Dr Dakuku Peterside, the Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), said the agency was being restructured to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the maritime sector in the country.
He gave the assurance at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Cue in audio (Peterside on restructuring)
“So we are restructuring, we are putting a new structure in place because over time NIMASA has evolved; it has taken up more responsibilities; we are still acting with the old structure.
“We are reforming our system to ensure that it is more effective and more efficient and to reform, we are looking at the Standard Operating Procedure.
“We are looking at our body of policies; we are looking at our methods of doing things; we are rebranding; so we are changing the entire public perception of NIMASA.
“Not just public perception, our culture, the way we do things, is it efficient, is it most effective, do we derive optimal value and of course we are concerned about speed and efficiency.’’
Cue out audio
The Director-General said from inception, the mandate of his administration was to restructure reform and reposition NIMASA to play the role of a catalyst in the country’s maritime sector.
He said the recent changes in NIMASA were part of the restructuring, adding that the Federal Ministry of Transportation had set up a stakeholders team to propose a new structure for NIMASA.
He said the team worked with NIMASA and a report had been submitted to the ministry which gave approval of the report in principle and the agency would commence implementation soon.
In terms of reforms, Peterside said the agency was doing a lot of things: “recently we moved people around; we are beginning to put a body of policies in place.
“We are reviewing our standard operating procedures; we are also devolving powers to the zonal operational areas where most of our operations take place, eastern zone, western zone and central zone.
“That is where the theatre of operation takes place, the theatres of operation is not in the head office of NIMASA; what we do there best is administrative functions.
“In addition to that reforms, we are also rebranding, we are changing our culture; we are looking at our culture the way things are done.
“The ultimate goal is efficiency and effectiveness so we are rebranding and part of the rebranding is that we are refreshing our vision; we are looking at our mission statement again.
“We are looking at our core values, what are those values that drive the job we do, what are those values that will drive the realisation of mandate we are set out to accomplish.
Peterside further said that NIMASA was also digitalising most of its processes to ensure that they were all automated and did not require the client coming to NIMASA office.
He said that with the digitalisation, one could register vessels, renew his documents and apply for his vessel to be surveyed on-line, using his i-pad or lap top.
“So, we are dealing with the issue of digitalization; we are dealing with the issue of corporate culture; we are dealing with the issue of ship survey and certification.
“So we ensure that the way we survey ship is entirely different from the way it was done in the recent past.
“We are also dealing with our personnel because ultimately, an organisation is as good as the personnel who work there; those who drive the process.
“There is no organization you can say you need to fix the organization; to fix the organization you need to fix the personnel, change the way they work and be sure that they are happy to do the work.
“So all that gamut of reforms is taking place in NIMASA.
“The ultimate picture is that we want to see a new NIMASA that is efficient, effective, that is a point of reference in a continent of Africa where everybody is happy to do business.’’ (NAN)
LCN/YEE/IA
Edited by Emmanuel Yashim/Idris Abdulrahman
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