ISPS CODE IMPLEMENTATION AND THE SECURITY SITUATION IN LAGOS PORT COMPLEX

Abstract

Maritime security is a somewhat nebulous concept. There is no international consensus on what maritime security entails, even though, every country has a vested interest in maritime security. Since ports are major gateways to the country and ships are foremost conveyor of people and goods into the nation, terrorists can infiltrate into the country through these avenues. Thus, the security of these duos is paramount in view of the prevailing security challenges in Nigeria. The security of the ports, no doubts, has ripple effects on the port operations and in turn the economy. The aim of this study is to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the ship and port facility security (ISPS) code on Lagos Ports while the specific objectives are to: ascertain the degree of implementation of ISPS Code in Lagos ports; examine the effect of ISPS Code implementation on Lagos ports operations; assess major impacts of the implementation of ISPS code on ship facilities; and also examine the implementation challenges of ISPS Code in Lagos ports’ operation. This work involves the use of primary and secondary data; for the primarily sourced data, 400 questionnaires were administered via purposive sampling to the staff of NIMASA, NPA, shipping companies, port facility security officer and port security agents while the secondary data was retrieved by reviewing books, reports, papers and also by browsing the internet on related subjects. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used for the data analysis which involved descriptive statistics using frequency tables, percentages, bar/pie charts and histograms. The fundamental findings of this study revealed that ISPS Code compliance level in Lagos ports is high and therefore encouraging; the implementation of ISPS Code has increasingly improved the activities of various organizations and the port. It was further observed that after the implementation of ISPS Code, the ports has experienced increased throughput, increased competitiveness, reduced delays in service time, also, increased use of information and communication technology. In the same vein, the implementation of ISPS Code has contributed to increased profit, increased manning, increased lead time, increase service level, increased effectiveness, increased security level, increased documentation, increased checking process, decrease in the occurrence of damage, increased administrative cost and increased customer satisfaction. It can be concluded that training personnel on the technical know-how and functionality of ISPS Code is paramount in the implementation requirements of the code; perhaps, each requirement is also associated with its cost.