NIMASA workers kick in opposition to ‘fraudulent’ proposal to concession company’s income stream

Workers members of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Company (NIMASA) have raised issues over the administration’s approval of a proposal to concession a sizeable portion of the company’s income stream to a non-public company.

If accredited by the Federal Government Council (FEC), the partnership will result in 13.5 per cent of NIMASA’s income going to the corporate, Royal Diadem Consults Ltd, for a interval of 15 years.

The corporate proposes to take a position N7.54 billion in growing what it calls a Maritime Digital Administration System (MEMS). In accordance with the phrases of the deal, a lot of the funding (75 per cent) will likely be provided as a mortgage, whereas the remaining 25 per cent will come within the type of fairness.

The corporate, Royal Diadem Consults, says the mission will create an “superior digital platform for managing NIMASA’s revenue-related IT programs and maritime operations with a view to enhancing the Company’s operational effectivity, transparency, and regulatory compliance throughout the maritime sector”.

It will likely be applied as a public-private partnership.

The digital companies provided by the mission goal to handle digital registration and certification, automated waste administration and air pollution management, cabotage and terminal operations, seafarer and incident administration, maritime safety and surveillance, and an built-in stakeholder engagement portal.

Additionally, the corporate states that the concession settlement might result in 95 per cent regulatory compliance inside two years, cut back processing time for certifications by 50 per cent within the first yr, improve income by 30 per cent in three years, create 1000 jobs in three years, result in complete monitoring of vessels inside two years, and result in a 20 per cent discount in maritime air pollution.

Nevertheless, NIMASA employees and maritime safety consultants stress that the funding shouldn’t be vital sufficient to implement grand proposal and is just too paltry to justify handing over 13.5 per cent of the company’s income for that lengthy.

In 2024, NIMASA generated N67 billion in income, a 58 per cent improve in comparison with the income generated in 2023. If the company continues to generate this quantity for the subsequent 15 years, which means, going by the proposed concession settlement, the corporate could be making over N9 billion yearly and about N135.7 billion on the finish of the contract — a 1,697 per cent improve in comparison with the funding.

Workers members, who’ve entry to the enterprise case report from Royal Diadem Consults, described the proposal as a “glorified Digital Useful resource Planning system”, serving functions that could possibly be dealt with by commonplace licensing and annual service charges.

In addition they stated the proposal doesn’t include reasonable step-by-step processes of how the objectives outlined could be achieved.

“They’re presenting it as an answer that can enhance income by 30% over three years with none enforcement, simply improved billing. The truth is, they’re not deploying any exhausting belongings,” one employee stated in a message shared with different workers in Might.

“What’s most regarding is there’s no efficiency benchmark. Even when income stays the identical, they’re entitled to that 15% yr after yr. Over 15 years, that’s a large long-term payout for a system that provides no actual operational duty or risk-sharing. It appears to be like like an try and concession NIMASA’s income stream is flying beneath the radar.”

A NIMASA worker, who has labored with the company for over 10 years throughout totally different tasks/models (together with Deep Blue Venture, Income Optimisation, Enforcement, Charges Assessment and Billing System Administration), believes the scope of the mission is overstretched and under-resourced.

He added that NIMASA might simply bear the proposed prices and doesn’t want a revenue-sharing concession to implement a mission of this scale.

The workers, who pleaded anonymity, stated, “The Company will pay for the mission out of its present revenues, prefer it did with different extra substantial tasks prior to now, just like the Deep Blue Venture, which the Company spent $214 million on with a logistics funds of N7 billion yearly throughout the mission’s implementation. The Company additionally spent a major sum of money on the design and implementation of its Sage X3 ERP mission with out the necessity to concession any a part of its income.”

He defined that the problems NIMASA is dealing with pertain to the dearth of enforcement capability to make sure compliance with current legal guidelines and laws.

“Though the usage of know-how can assist with that, the dearth of enforcement capabilities within the mission is not going to enable for the mission to ship its anticipated outcomes,” he added.

The workers member additionally famous that the deserves of the mission had been thought-about correctly earlier than it was accredited.
“To the utter shock of a lot of the workers, there was no elaborate overview committee containing members of all related operations departments because the scope of the mission impacts on them and their evaluation of the mission might have led to a extra healthful consequence as points presently being noticed within the mission would have been raised in its examination.”

One other worker who has labored at NIMASA for many years throughout a number of departments, together with MEM, SDD, Security, Cabotage, FSD, Audit, and Deep Blue, described the proposed concession settlement as having a number of purple flags.

Asking to not be named, he alleged, “The mission in totality is a fraud meant to defraud the company and maintain it struggling financially to fulfill its core mandate of security, safety, and transport growth.

“From my expertise, investing a mere N7.5 billion on a MEMS mission is considerably not sufficient to immediate a rise in income to a degree the place we must always assure a return of as much as 15 per cent to anybody. There is no such thing as a funding in vital maritime surveillance and enforcement infrastructure, no shared operational duty, and no asset deployment.”

The workers additionally questioned why the proposal overview was achieved in secret and hidden away from the vast majority of related departments.

In an open letter to NIMASA Director-Normal, Dr Dayo Mobereola, circulated on WhatsApp on Saturday, Might 3, 2025, involved workers members described the proposal as a fraudulent, “under-the-table try” to concession the company for a “mere N7.5 billion”.

The controversy is coming amid rising discontent in regards to the administration of the director-general, Mobereola.

In one other open letter circulated amongst staff of the company, signed by ‘The Workers You’ve Chosen to Ignore’, NIMASA employees lamented the neglect of their welfare.

Elements of the letter, launched on April 20, 2025, learn, “Since your assumption of workplace, you may have provided nothing however disappointment. No wage construction. No promotions. No welfare packages. No fundamental workers gestures like Sallah or Christmas rice — a convention you’ve casually discarded. You’ve shut down the workers well being verify initiative prefer it meant nothing. Clearly, you don’t care. However perceive this: your indifference will come again to hang-out you.

“Sufficient of the lies. Sufficient of the empty speeches. Sufficient of the silence. In case you have no intention of implementing the accredited June/July wage construction from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then brace your self — as a result of we is not going to sit quietly whilst you trample on our rights.”

Additionally, in one other open letter, Mobereola was accused of not implementing the hardship allowance and new wage construction, regardless of their approval by the Federal Authorities.

“The company is stagnant, and this may be seen clearly not solely in inner affairs but additionally externally – there was no new operational growth or enforcement drive on IMO conventions throughout departments. It seems like we’re on autopilot – and never in a great way,” the letter stated.

In the identical vein, in a letter to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economic system, dated March 18, 2025, NIMASA workers, beneath the aegis of ‘Residents United Towards Corruption and Impunity’, accused the company’s management of perverting procurement processes, inflating contracts, and abusing estacode by frequent international journeys.