Nigeria to Resubmit Request for Removal from War Insurance Risk Status
By Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Director General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh, has revealed that the federal government is set to resubmit demand for removal of Nigeria from War Risk Insurance status.
Jamoh stated that despite the delisting of Nigeria as a maximum risk zone, the war risk insurance has not been removed.
The NIMASA boss made this disclosure yesterday, while speaking to journalists at the graduation ceremony of the third batch of the Deep Blue Project, held at the Battalion of the Nigerian Army located in the womb of Elele forests in Rivers State.
The training supervised by Israeli experts involves manned and unmanned platforms plus armoured vehicles.
Jamoh said that for one year, no successful attacks had taken place in Nigeria’s territorial waters, a feat he said even the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had admitted.
The NIMASA boss said the two incidents that took place in March 2022 were not to be counted against Nigeria.
He said just 10 days ago, the IMO leadership visited Nigeria and inspected the equipment and facilities and admitted that the collaborations and cohesion achieved by the Deep Blue Project must be studied by the 175 member countries.
He said it was therefore important for the Lloyd of London to remove Nigeria from the punitive war risk insurance which makes shipping to Nigeria very expensive, thus fueling inflation and making Nigeria’s produce very uncompetitive.
The DG said 109 new specially trained operatives graduated to be deployed to the Focados, Brass and Bonny.
He said 300 operatives had been trained and deployed. He said their activities had already stabilised Nigeria’s territorial waters.
He said he would be outside Nigeria in the coming days to submit further evidence of Nigeria’s successes.
Speaking later in an interview, Jamoh said the international insurance regulators may be waiting to be sure of consistency in the safety of Nigeria’s territorial waters and consistency of the security and safety measures Nigeria has deployed.
He mentioned some countries that had achieved delisting but yet to get the war risk insurance off their backs.
Explaining the damage such insurance status is inflicting on the Nigerian economy, the DG said rate of $3000 would be $15000.
He said an import-dependent country like Nigeria would be bleeding from high import charges.
He said he would not expect Nigeria to hang on the hook for too long after achieving safety in it’s territorial waters and after being delisted from maximum risk zone status.
