Mobere­ola: Chart­ing New Course for Nigeria’s Mari­time Future

Osagie Edward high­lights how stra­tegic reforms, inter­na­tional part­ner­ships, and digital innov­a­tion are trans­form­ing Nigeria’s mari­time sec­tor

When Dr. Dayo Mobere­ola assumed lead­er­ship of the Nigerian Mari­time Admin­is­tra­tion and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on March 22nd 2024, he inher­ited a sec­tor burdened by leg­acy chal­lenges, from train­ing back­logs and reg­u­lat­ory gaps to an inter­na­tional repu­ta­tion marred by secur­ity con­cerns and pun­it­ive insur­ance premi­ums. Two years later, the agency is emer­ging as a con­tin­ental leader in mari­time innov­a­tion, reg­u­lat­ory enforce­ment, and global advocacy.

Through a com­bin­a­tion of aggress­ive capa­city devel­op­ment, stra­tegic inter­na­tional dip­lomacy, and digital trans­form­a­tion, NIMASA is pos­i­tion­ing Nigeria not just as a regional mari­time power, but as a model for African mari­time gov­ernance in the 21st cen­tury.

Build­ing Human Cap­ital

At the heart of NIMASA’S trans­form­a­tion is an unwaver­ing com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing Nigeria’s mari­time work­force. The agency has tackled head-on the long­stand­ing back­log in the Nigerian Sea­farers Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme (NSDP), aggress­ively clear­ing sea-time train­ing delays that had frus­trated count­less aspir­ing mari­time pro­fes­sion­als.

In a his­toric first for 2025, Mobere­ola per­son­ally atten­ded the Mari­time Academy of Nigeria (MAN) gradu­ation cere­mony, a sym­bolic ges­ture that under­scored the agency’s renewed com­mit­ment to train­ing pipelines. This wasn’t mere cere­mo­nial attend­ance; it reflec­ted a fun­da­mental shift in how NIMASA views its role in work­force devel­op­ment.

The num­bers tell the story: over 235 cadets have been sent to premier mari­time insti­tu­tions in India and Greece for train­ing as Licensed Deck and Engine Officers. Mean­while, NIMASA has integ­rated cut­ting-edge tech­no­logy for veri­fy­ing Cer­ti­fic­ates of Com­pet­ency (COC), stream­lin­ing the sea­farer licens­ing pro­cess and bring­ing it in line with inter­na­tional STCW (Stand­ards of Train­ing, Cer­ti­fic­a­tion and Watch­keep­ing) require­ments.

But Mobere­ola’s vis­ion extends bey­ond external train­ing. Recog­niz­ing that insti­tu­tional excel­lence begins at home, NIMASA has imple­men­ted com­pre­hens­ive staff wel­fare pro­grams, includ­ing struc­tured train­ing ini­ti­at­ives, per­form­ance-based pro­mo­tions, and reward sys­tems designed to enhance internal pro­fes­sion­al­ism and oper­a­tional effi­ciency.

The res­ults? Nigeria’s elec­tion to Cat­egory C of the Inter­na­tional Mari­time Organ­iz­a­tion (IMO) Coun­cil for the 2026–2027 bien­nium, a major mile­stone reflect­ing global con­fid­ence in NIMASA’S admin­is­trat­ive reforms and a test­a­ment to the agency’s grow­ing inter­na­tional stature.

IMO Coun­cil Vic­tory

Nigeria’s elec­tion into the IMO Coun­cil on Fri­day, Novem­ber 28, 2025, dur­ing the IMO Gen­eral Assembly in Lon­don, stands out as a defin­ing achieve­ment for NIMASA under Mobere­ola. The vic­tory, led by the Hon­our­able Min­is­ter of Mar­ine and Blue Eco­nomy, Dr. Ade­g­boyega Oyetola, marked Nigeria’s tri­umphant return to the coun­cil after more than a dec­ade.

Describ­ing the out­come as a land­mark endorse­ment of Nigeria’s mari­time reforms, Dr. Oyetola cred­ited over twelve months of intens­ive dip­lo­matic shuttles, sus­tained advocacy, and coordin­ated stake­holder engage­ment involving NIMASA and other national insti­tu­tions. He noted that Nigeria’s improved mari­time secur­ity archi­tec­ture and reforms in the Gulf of Guinea played a decis­ive role in restor­ing global con­fid­ence.

This attrac­ted Pres­id­en­tial Com­mend­a­tion for the apex reg­u­lat­ory agency as Pres­id­ent Bola Ahmed Tinubu form­ally com­men­ded the man­age­ment of NIMASA, describ­ing the achieve­ment as a strong affirm­a­tion of Nigeria’s grow­ing influ­ence in global mari­time gov­ernance.

Mod­ern­iz­ing Mari­time Labour

In June 2025, at the Day of the Sea­farer cel­eb­ra­tion in Port Har­court, the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment launched the Mari­time Labour E-plat­form, a digital solu­tion described by Hon­our­able Min­is­ter Ade­g­boyega Oyetola as a trans­form­at­ive tool for labour admin­is­tra­tion.

The plat­form rep­res­ents more than tech­no­lo­gical upgrade; it’s a fun­da­mental reima­gin­ing of how Nigeria man­ages its mari­time work­force. Build­ing on the suc­cess of the 2022 dock­work­ers regis­tra­tion ini­ti­at­ive, the E-plat­form cre­ates a mod­ern, integ­rated sys­tem for regis­ter­ing and veri­fy­ing sea­farers, dock­work­ers, employ­ers, and other stake­hold­ers.