NIMASA hires consultant to recover $3.78b debt

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has engaged Snecou Financial Services Company Limited to recover a debt of over $3.78 billion owed the agency.

A statement from NIMASA said that the Parastatals Tenders Board (PTB) of the agency recently granted the approval for the contract at its 55th session at its head office in Lagos.

It noted that given the urgent need to recover the debts, the agency sought and obtained approval for a “Certificate of No Objection” from the Bureau of Public Procurement in line with the Public Procurement Act (PPA).

According to the contractual agreement already endorsed by both parties, the contract is based on a success rate of 13 per cent using a benchmark of $19,753,012.36 and N239, 607,155.52 monthly revenue while a maximum cap of 15 per cent success rate is payable on any new revenue head discovered by the consultants within the contract period.

In other words, Snecou Financial Services Company Limited will be paid 13 per cent of only the revenue that is above the threshold of the approved benchmark in the course of the contracting period.

Similarly, Messrs Snecou will also be entitled to a maximum of 15 per cent of new revenue streams discovered during the period.This is in line with the vision of the Director General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside that is in accordance with the agency’s Medium Term Strategic Growth Plan, part of which is to boost revenue.

The director-general had observed: “We have awarded a debt recovery contract, which is totally different from what Global West was doing for NIMASA.” The statement said: “We advertised the contract in several newspapers. We have followed due process in accordance with relevant laws to get our money from debtors.”

Peterside also noted that the agency’s debt profile is around $4 billion to $5 billion, which has necessitated an urgent need to recover the money in order to develop requisite infrastructure for the maritime industry.

He said that debts owed NIMASA by various operators in the maritime industry had grown over the last five years, even necessitating an investigation and a public hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration in June this year.

This contract, according to him, is expected to recover these debts and channel the funds into developing critical infrastructure as well as knowledgeable manpower for the industry.