N50bn modular floating dock site handed over to technical partners by NIMASA

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has mobilised its technical partners to the site of its modular floating dock for instant utilization.

The floating dock is expected to increase maritime trade and human capacity development.

Mr. Danny Fuchs, the Managing Director of Melsmore and the preferred technical partners to manage the N50 billion modular floating dock were mobilised to the site and handed over the Continental Shipyard Limited, the leased site for the operations of the multi-billion facility on Thursday.

While handing over the site to the technical partners, Melsmore and its officials, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, stressed the need for them to analyse the action plan in the light of realities on the ground with detailed deliverables, and key performance indicators with clearly stated schedules.

His words: “Nigerians eagerly await the deployment of the Modular Floating Dock. This is a national asset, which has potential to boost maritime trade, create jobs, and develop skills, by providing training avenues to various maritime training institutions in Nigeria, while also attracting foreign investment and preventing capital flight, thereby generating revenue.

“We hope to have students from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria and the Maritime University Okerenkoko amongst other maritime institutions come for practical time”.

The NIMASA boss pointed out that the technical partners are to collaborate with the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority in finalising site management, which includes risk assessment in preparation to move the Modular floating Dock to the Continental Shipyard for the commencement of full operations.

NIMASA and the technical partners also agreed to invite manufacturers of the Floating Dock, Damen Shipyard to join in recommissioning the Dockyard, while site preparations are ongoing.

This is to ensure the Floating Dock is deployed in the shortest possible time.

The Managing Director, Melsmore, Mr. Danny Fuchs,in his remarks applauded the Management of the Agency for the opportunity to work on such an important project and gave his conviction that the company is prepared to handle the movement of the floating dock from the naval dockyard to the Continental Shipyard Limited (CSL).

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) recently leased designated areas at the Continental Shipyard for the operations of the Modular Floating Dock.

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. The project will be run on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The technical partner, Mr Danny Fuchs, was the former Managing Director of Lagos Channel Management (LCM), one of the dredging companies of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) which went into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Joint Venture relationship with the NPA with a view to establishing a long- term structure for the continuous management of the water channels.