NPA procures four new tug boats; Nigerian pilots to take charge

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NPA procures four new tug boats; Nigerian pilots to take charge

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The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) confirms that the ongoing three-month training of Nigerian pilots is aimed at preparing them to fully take-over four newly-procured tug boats.NPA Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Usman said this Wednesday in a media chat the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.The NPA launched four 60-tonne buller-pull tug boats comprising of state-of-the-art equipment and fully computerized engines.“Currently, we have management service using Landform. Landform is training Nigerian pilots.“I think within the period of three months, they will be able to handover to Nigerian captains, who are already on board, now familiarising themselves with the technology.“The Nigerian captains are well trained; what they are trying to achieve now is to understand how these automated top-of-the-range tug boats operate.”According to Usman, the tug boats would improve marine operation and service delivery in the Lagos Pilotage District and also increase revenue for the authority.She informed that the boats is capable of assisting vessels to berth appropriately, support navigation and improve management of the channels.“The tug boats will provide the authority an avenue where we can tuck in very huge vessels and a lot of our operators have been concerned about the towage services we are providing.“With this new entry, in addition to our fleet, we are going to be more efficient in delivering towage services in our pilotage districts.“Now, we have nine tug boats. We are going to look at the requirements across the respective zones and then deploy them accordingly.“These four tugboats are the top-of-the-range tugboats globally. They are international best tug boats that are available in the market and we have brought them to the Nigerian market.“And we believe that they will enhance our maritime operations both in the Eastern and Western zones of the maritime operations,’’ she remarked.It was gathered according to media reports that NPA procured four tug boats amounting to over 30 million US dollars (N9.16 billion) for port efficiency.The tug boats are named MT DAURA, MT UROMI, MT UBIMA and MT MAJIYA respectively.

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