As part of the arrangements preceding the deployment of the Modular Floating Dock, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency said it has taken over areas leased to it by the Nigerian Ports Authority at the Continental Shipyard for the operations of the dockyard.
The areas include the Dolphin Jetty, the waterfront of the jetty adjourning the slipway, an administrative block, a construction, welding and mechanical workshop and a civil maintenance workshop, among others.
Speaking during the handover ceremony in Lagos recently, the Director General of NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, said the handover of the Continental Shipyard to NIMASA marked the final lap in the quest of the Agency to deploy the modular floating Dockyard.
Jamoh, who was represented by Kabiru Diso, the head of the Public-Private Partnership Unit, assured stakeholders that the Modular Floating Dockyard would soon be deployed since all grey areas between NIMASA and the NPA have been cleared.
“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 said.
The Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission issued a certificate of compliance for an Outline Business Case for the operation of the floating dock, while also describing it as a bankable and sustainable project.
The Modular Floating Dock, which has the capacity to handle up to 10,000 metric tons of vessels, would be run on a Public Private Partnership arrangement.
Recall that the N50 billion modular floating dock was acquired by NIMASA in 2018 and is yet to be deployed for operations due to many technical issues.
