The reinstated Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA), Paul Sobba Massaquoi, participated in the IMO General Assembly where he laid before the IMO Secretary General the Sierra Leone Maritime’s STCW Statutory Instrument that he facilitated for Parliamentary ratification and domestication as his maiden priority area during his first tenure in office as Executive Director of that entity.
It must be noted that as a STCW listed country such means a third country that ensures an adequate level of protection through its domestic laws and from the international commitments it promised to undertake.
As for Sierra Leone, becoming a white listed country means a lot in terms of an increase in the country’s blue economy.
Paul’s mission and vision is to see that transpire whilst he’s still at SLMA as ED.
His laudable strides and initiatives have helped in putting the entity in the limelight at the IMO- International Maritime Organization and one that prompted the IMO to visit Sierra Leone in April geared towards inspecting and assessing its preparedness as well as its capacity to be a white listed country.
Some of the aspects that the IMO considered in its assessment were the Maritime lighthouse, which is considered one of the IMO’s navigational tools, inspection of the country’s aids to navigation as well as some of the internal systems in place to monitor activities at sea.
Paul also engaged all stakeholders, including the supervisory Ministry, the Board and Parliament to seek their support for Sierra Leone to achieve its Maritime white list status.
The newly appointed Permanent Representative to the IMO, Ambassador Dr Morie Manyeh, was also in attendance as well as Sheik Kabba – Alternate Rep. IMO and Engineer Ibrahim Wurie, Director of Safety and Security, SLMA.
