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Insurance Underwriters Give Nigeria Conditions To Cancel War Risk Surcharge-Jamoh
Fred Omotara, Lagos
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh on Tuesday revealed that Lloyd’s, the leading insurance underwriter coordinating insurance surcharges on Nigerian bound cargoes, have asked that the agency submit it’s short term, medium term and long term plan that will sustain the fight against maritime crimes in the nations waters before War Risk Surcharges slammed on Nigerian bound cargoes can be cancelled.
Recall that Nigeria, for the first time in 28years, celebrated five months of zero attacks in her maritime domain on Tuesday.
Speaking after a tour of the C4i system located at the NIMASA Resource Centre in Kirikiri by the Honourable Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, the NIMASA DG explained that Nigerians should be optimistic because everything will be put towards ensuring the War Risk Surcharges slammed on Nigerian bound cargoes get cancelled.
According to Dr. Bashir Jamoh, “All we are trying to do is to sustain the tempo. As I said earlier, we have opened our doors for the international community to see what we are doing. So whatever report they asked for now, they are part of that report.
“We have what we call Nigeria Joint Industry Working Bureau where all the stakeholders are all present in. We have the Inter-Tanko, the largest owners of tankers in the world; we have the Inter-Cargo, the largest owners of cargoes in the world and we have the oil marketing companies, they are part and parcel of NIMASA and Nigerian Navy efforts against maritime crimes. They are seeing what we are doing.
“Apart from that, we have created what is called Shared Gulf of Guinea where the European Union and other stakeholders are domiciled in. They are all seeing what we are doing, and that’s what informed them to remove Nigeria from the Red List of maritime nations in terms of insecurity on the 3rd of March, 2022.
“On War Risk Surcharges, what they are saying now is that Nigeria has been on the list for 25years, and five months without attack is not enough to remove her from the list. They have asked us to submit a short term, medium term, and long term plan to sustain the tempo against maritime insecurity.
“That’s what we are preparing now and we assure Nigerians that by September, 2022 when the Lloyd’s committee deliberate on our position paper on War Risk Surcharges, this War Risk insurance will be removed.”
War Risk Surcharge is a policy by the Insurance company to charge additional amount if a ship carrying insured cargoes passes through a particular zone that is prone to piracy attacks or other maritime criminality.