Nigeria strengthens waterway safety through agency collaboration

The Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy (FMMBE) and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) have entered discussions to enhance inter-agency cooperation regarding safety on Nigeria’s waterways. The collaboration aims to bridge the gap between accident investigation and policy implementation, ensuring that findings from maritime mishaps lead to improved safety regulations and enforcement.

During meetings in Abuja, FMMBE Permanent Secretary Fatima Mahmood and NSIB Director-General Capt. Alex Badeh Jnr. discussed clarifying institutional mandates to prevent overlapping responsibilities. Badeh emphasized the need for independent marine casualty investigations to be integrated into maritime policy reforms, noting that Nigeria possesses approximately 10,000 kilometers of navigable inland waterways across 28 states.

To improve response times and evidence preservation, Badeh proposed a formal casualty notification protocol requiring marine accidents to be reported to authorities within one hour. The NSIB’s role is to conduct independent, no-blame investigations to determine the causes of accidents and issue safety recommendations, which is seen as vital for the growth of Nigeria’s Blue Economy.