Ag. Managing Director, NPA, Mohammed Bello Koko

Maritime security experts under the aegis of the Support for West African Maritime Security SWAIMS, has pledged to partner the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA in its renewed efforts to address maritime security and safety challenges not only within the country’s waters but also around the Gulf of Guinea.

SWAIMS is an affiliate of the European Union, which provides support to Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS countries and Mauritania in the drive to fight against piracy and related crimes in the sub-region. It offers technical assistance on the anti-piracy and nautical security services, among others.

The SWAIMS team on a working visit to the NPA head office on Marina Lagos, identified   electronic management control, deepening of International Ships and Ports Facility Security ISPS Code compliance and sustenance, security surveillance and deterrence as critical areas of concern. The group also said it will provide capacity building on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as radar surveillance on cyber security.

SWAIMS acting team leader, Dr. Alex Klein and colleagues were received by the Executive Director Marine and Operations, Hon. Onari Brown, who represented the acting Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko. He affirmed that it is expedient to intimate policy makers of the cost of insecurity in order to take the drive to the next level, stressing that insecurity encourages inflation, high operting costs and impacts negatively on standard of living.

The acting MD in his remarks stated that issues of maritime insecurity had heightened thus the need to tackle it frontally. He urged the SWAIMS team to diligently concentrate on the theme of their operation which he said the Authority identifies with . The acting Managing Director added that information sharing is key to tackling maritime and cyber insecurity in the industry and beyond.

He also assured that NPA would continue to synergise with strategic stakeholders and partners with a view to ensuring that all forms of insecurity in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea region were eliminated.