NIMASA Sets To Flag Off Biometric Identify Cards Registration For Seafarers, Dockworkers

Last updated Jan 15, 2022

From Left: Secretary General,MWUN ,Comrade Felix Akingboye presenting the iconic gift to the Head Maritime Labour Services NIMASA,Mr. Aliyu Lawal as President General MWUN Comrade Adewale Adeyanju looks on during the NIMASA officer's visit to the union headquarters in Lagos on Friday.

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on Friday indicated strong interest to flag off the much talked about biometric identity cards for dockworkers and seafarers on or before the end of January, 2022.

Head, Maritime Labour Services, NIMASA, Mr. Aliyu Lawal told our correspondent after a meeting with the leadership of the Maritime Workers’Union of Nigeria (MWUN) at the union national secretariat in Lagos.

Lawal assured that all necessary equipment needed for commencement of the exercise were already on ground

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Lawal said, “The biometric is going to commence by the end of this month. All the inputs concerning the biometric have been delivered. We have the machines and are ready to kick-start the process

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“My assurance is that by the end of this month, we will have to start producing the ID cards. That is all I can say for now,” he submitted.

Members of the MWUN with the Head,Maritime Labour Services NIMASA, Mr. Aliyu Lawal shortly after the meeting on Friday in Lagos

Earlier, he stated that part of his mission to the union secretariat was to seek continued peaceful co-existence between the agency and the union.

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“I am here to do a new year visit to our esteemed maritime union, the PG and his team for peaceful coexistence with the agency in the past years and continue to ask them to maintain that peace and to discuss some burning issues as they relate to the union and the agency

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“The meeting was fruitful for better and better engagement in discharge of our duties.

“The burning issues are more or less on the pool system which we have discussed and we are presenting that to our management and also the current happenings around the union.”

Responding, the President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju advised that the union was not against online of biometric for dockworkers but that the union must be carried along to avoid retired dockers to register as part of the current workforce.

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He stated that since the online will be accessible to everyone, there should be identification process to sieve out intruders into the system.

He however lauded the management of NIMASA for taking it upon itself to commence the process at this time.

By Roland Ekama