For the purpose of running the modular floating dock, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has taken over areas at the Continental Shipyard that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had leased to it.
These locations include, but are not limited to, the dolphin jetty, the waterfront of the jetty adjacent to the slipway, an administrative block, a construction, welding, and mechanical workshop, and a civil maintenance workshop.
The DG informed stakeholders that the Modular Floating Dockyard will soon be deployed because all potential areas of ambiguity between NIMASA and the NPA had been resolved. The DG was represented by the agency’s Head of Public, Private Partnership (PPP), Unit, Kabiru Diso.
“The Modular Floating Dockyard is a national asset and now that all grey areas between the NPA and NIMASA have been addressed, we are very close to the deployment of the Modular Floating Dock.”
“Our goal is to domicile dry-docking of vessels in the country thus saving the nation foreign exchange currently expended on dry-docking vessels outside the shores of Nigeria. The floating Dock will also provide both direct and indirect employment to Nigerians with a multiplier effect on capacity development,” he stated.
The agency’s effort to deploy the modular floating Dockyard has reached its climax, according to Dr. Bashir Jamoh, Director General of NIMASA, who spoke during the transfer ceremony.
He claimed that the Outline Business Case (OBC) for the operation of the floating dock had been certified as compliant by the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which had also deemed it to be sustainable and bankable.
He declared that a public-private partnership (PPP) would be used to operate the modular floating dock, which can accommodate vessels up to 10,000 metric tons.
