The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) raked into the federal government coffers $1.34 billion between 2009 and 2014.
A document detailing the agency’s earnings from 2009 till date shows that the agency’s collection rose from about $172.6 million in 2009 to $288.2 million in 2014.
Between 2010 and 2013, the NIMASA made $199.9 million, $214.8 million, $226.6 million and $242.3 million respectively.
The figures further reveal that from January to June this year, the agency has already collected $148 million, making the total of the agency’s collections from 2009 to June 2015 to be $1.49 billion. The NIMASA has the statutory mandate to collect 3 per cent levy on all international inbound and outbound cargo.
The immediate past management of the agency headed by Dr Patrick Akpobolokemi broke a new revenue frontiers in 2013 when it made Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) to pay the 3 per cent statutory levy after over 20 years of evading payment with claims that its vessels do not operate in Nigeria’s cabotage regions. It also successfully installed a satellite-based maritime domain awareness and surveillance system which makes it possible for mother vessels coming into Nigeria to be seen several nautical miles away. The system has helped the agency track vessels and eliminate levy evasion by vessels coming into the country.
The agency in the last four years recorded many other huge feats in maritime capacity development, training about 2,500 young Nigerians on maritime professions in universities abroad under its National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) and building a maritime university and a technical college in Delta State as well as establishing maritime institutes in six universities across the country.
