MARAN seminar to discuss ISPS Code implementation

Stakeholders in Nigerian maritime industry are to converge on Friday to discuss the implementation of the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code and the primary international security standard in the nation’s port industry.

The event will hold at the International Maritime Press Centre of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Apapa, Lagos.

Abiodun Omoteso, a master mariner and former consultant to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), will make presentation at the event.

According to Kayode Atofolaki, chairman, MARAN Seminar Committee, the event is aimed at enabling the public and the international shipping community to appreciate the level of security on the nation’s waterways including the seaport.

Atofolaki adds that the one-day seminar will discuss the level of NIMASA’s Verification Inspection Exercise (VIE) across all Nigerian port facilities as well as their level of security threats.

“ISPS Code is a comprehensive set of measures developed in response to the perceived threats to ships and port facilities in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States,” he notes.

The Code is implemented alongside the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974. The Code has two parts, one mandatory and one recommendatory.

“The purpose of the Code is to provide a standardised, consistent framework for evaluating risk, enabling governments to offset changes in threat with changes in vulnerability for ships and port facilities through determination of appropriate security levels and corresponding security measures,” he says.

It would be recalled that the United States government had said that some Nigerian port facilities lacked effective anti-terrorism measures in place. This was why US imposed Conditions of Entry (COE) on vessels calling from some Nigerian port terminals which are yet to comply with the ISPS Code.

The US Embassy in Nigeria in a statement also said the COE would require affected vessels to meet certain security measures prior to entering US ports.