The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has issued a stern directive warning Port Facility Security Officers (PFSOs) across the nation of imminent sanctions if they fail to strictly adhere to official incident reporting channels. The warning was formally communicated on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, via an official marine security notice originating from NIMASA Headquarters in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The directive, titled “Non-Receipt of Incident Reports/Submission to Approved ISPS Unit,” was issued and signed by Mudi Isa, Head of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code Unit at NIMASA. In the notice, NIMASA revealed that port facility security personnel have increasingly bypassed the central reporting infrastructure by routing marine incident emails to individual agency staff members or failing to submit required reports altogether.
According to Isa, this breakdown in standard operating procedures creates severe security vulnerabilities across the maritime domain. ”It has come to our attention that the Unit is currently not receiving your incident report emails, which poses a significant risk,” the notice read.
“Failure to report security incidents to the correct channels constitutes a breach of ISPS compliance.” Under the new regulatory enforcement measures, the ISPS Code Unit mandated that all PFSOs operating at terminal facilities and ports nationwide transition immediately to centralized routing, requiring all incident reports to be transmitted directly to the approved ISPS Unit designated email address.
Furthermore, facility officers must cease sending or copying incident reports to individual NIMASA staff email accounts unless explicitly authorized in writing. The agency emphasized that bypassing these established channels compromises ship-to-shore security and supply chain integrity, leaving defaulting facilities liable to formal regulatory enforcement and the potential revocation of operational clearances.
Reaffirming its position as the designated authority for ISPS Code implementation in Nigeria, NIMASA reiterated that structured intelligence sharing remains critical to safeguarding the nation’s waters.
