Ahamefula Ogbu
9 December 2004
Abuja — Director General of the National Maritime Authority (NMA), Mr Ferdinand Agu, yesterday raised alarm that Nigeria may be blacklisted and expelled by the International Maritime Orga-nisation (IMO), if it fails to ratify about 40 maritime conventions by the end of next year.
Agu highlights the need for the nation to give adequate attention to the ratification of the conventions, to avoid being left behind in the global scheme of things.
He said this while presenting budget of the Authority before the House of Representatives Committee on Marine Transport and the Committee on Finance and praised the lawmakers for the speedy ratification of the ISPS code and pleaded that they expedite action in ratifying and domesticating the remaining conventions.
He said ratification of the conventions were necessary, to ensure that Nigeria changed with the times, and be part of the international shipping community.
Agu said his authority experienced improved revenue from $60 million to $90 million last year, due to completion of the authority's billing system, which has made evasion of payments impossible.
He pleaded with the House to ensure that all necessary financial approvals to the Authority were given, so that they would not lack what they need for efficient operations.
Agu, said they have budgeted N14.292 billion as against last year's N12.35 billion, which represented a 10 per cent increase.
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