ASSESSMENT OF MARITIME SECURITY, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION
- Project Research
- 1-5 Chapters
- Abstract : Available
- Table of Content: Available
- Reference Style: APA
- Recommended for : Student Researchers
- NGN 3000
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Worldwide Port and Maritime operations and their associated facilities and infrastructure collectively represent one of the single greatest unaddressed challenges to the security of nations and the global economy today. The reason that ports and shipping activity are so difficult to secure lies primarily in their technology. Ports are typically large, asymmetrical activities dispersed over hundreds of acres of land and water so that they can simultaneously accommodate ship, truck and rail traffic, petroleum product/liquid offload, storage or piping, and container storage. The movement of freight, cargo (solid or liquid), and transport through a port is generally on a “queuing” system, meaning that any delay snarls all operations. Whether or not delays are related to security, security generally falls by the wayside in the interest of time management or convenience. Globally, there are very few uniform standards for point-to-point control of security on containers, cargoes, vessels or crews – a port’s security in one nation remains very much at the mercy of a port’s security, or lack thereof, in another nation. Organized crime is entrenched in many ports and a large majority of them still do not require background checks on dock workers, crane operators or warehouse employees. Most ports lease large portions of their facility to private terminal operating companies, who are responsible for their own security. The result of this is a “balkanized”, uneven system of port security and operations management as a whole.
Maritime sector is that sector of the economy that deals with sea transportation and movement of goods and materials from one place to another. It oversees the Water borne transport which is one of the modes of transportation of goods and or persons, which has for centuries been the main prerequisite for trade transactions between nations and regions, and has without doubt, played an important role in creating economic development and prosperity(Igbokwe,2001).The maritime industry occupies a very prominent position in the economies of nations all over the world.
The industry in its strict sense embraces all business activities which take place within the maritime environment. These includes offshore economic activities such as fishing, salvage, towage, underwater resource exploitation/extraction, and onshore economic activities in ports, shipping activities, ship construction, repair and maintenance. Of all these, shipping stand out as the greatest boost to a nation’s economic growth and international status. This is because all other maritime activities revolve around shipping. The oil and gas sector, for instance depends on shipping, as it is the vehicle that drives it, enabling it to make all the difference in an economy. Due to the close link between shipping activities and economic development, most nations cannot afford to toy with the industry (Ndikom, 2011).Shipping as one of the world’s most international industries makes seaborne trade in a sense at the apex of world economic activity. As business has become more international, and newly industrialized countries have taken their place alongside the Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) countries, the maritime industry has provided the vehicle for an extraordinary growth of trade. This has also led to the progression from a world of isolated communities to an integrated global community (Stopford, 2003).
Shipping is a complex industry and the conditions which govern its operations in one sector do not necessarily apply to another. In terms of its main assets, the ships vary widely in size and type. They provide the whole range of service for a variety of goods, whether over shorter or longer distances. The shipping market is made of the liner shipping, tramp shipping, bulk shipping, the charter market etc. And because shipping is a service industry, ship demand depends on several factors including price, speed, reliability and security (Stopford, 2003).
Maritime transport is essential to the proper operation of any country’s economy and a vital part of a nations transport infrastructure. A minister of transport in the federal republic of Nigeria was once quoted to have said that transport is to the Nigerian economy what the artery is to the blood circulation (Igbokwe, 2011).
In Nigeria, there are shipping lines involved in the transportation of cargo like oil, bulk cargo and finished goods to and fro Nigerian ports. Coming to the area of study, Maersk line is a sub division of the AP Moller-Maersk group and is involved in terminal operations, supply services, drilling and oil tanker services to a number of users in Nigeria. Its headquarters is based in Copenhagen Denmark with subsidiaries and offices in more than 135 countries worldwide, which houses a worldwide container services, logistics and forwarding solutions and terminal activities under the brand names (Maerskline.com, 2012).
Maerskline Nigeria commenced services in 1953, initially working under agents like John-Holt shipping Nigeria Limited, and registered its corporate entity in Nigeria on February 2nd 1988. Their main office locations include Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kano (Maerskline.com, 2012). Based on the above assertions the following sections of this study shall dwell more on the various concepts of the subject matter under study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Maritime security is, indeed, a quandary (Uadiale and Yonmo, 2010a). The disintegration of central government authority, the lack of maritime security has, therefore, become a grave problem. The Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea are thus symbols of “the few cases in Africa where security onland have spilled over and affected maritime security severely”. The lack of maritime security in the region and the fact that it was not possible to enforce the law and maintain good order at sea, threatened maritime communication, maritime sovereignty and stimulated piracy. While much of the insecurity mid-wifed, piracy of the Somalia coast stems from the collapse of governance, and law and order in Somalia, in the Gulf of Guinea, the situation is somewhat different. Maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is more directly politically driven. In Nigeria, politics onland directly result in offshore actions, causing the hub of insecurity onland in the Niger Delta region to spill into the Gulf of Guinea to promote bad order at sea. According to the maritime watchdog – the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the waters of Nigeria are now the second most dangerous in the world, next to Somalia.The proliferation of piracy in the West African region has been of concern amongst government and the oil industry since 1999. With militant groups turning pirates in the Niger Delta, claiming that they are sabotaging the oil industry for political purposes in protest of the mismanagement of Nigeria’s oil wealth. However, these political grievances are increasingly taking on a criminal nature (Uadiale and Yonmo, 2010a).
Therefore, a critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing these shipping lines and services in Nigeria is very important. Also many factors like the management of bunker, activities of pirates, application of information and communication technology, safety practices and ship turn round time affect the growth and survival of a shipping line.
Some shipping lines know this fact. While some have taken the lead in innovating trends that would help them overcome these challenges, others sit with no attempt to innovate; still waiting for the changes to blow them away. Therefore with the attempt in this direction of research study, the impact of security and Information Communication Technology (ICT) shall be critically assessed herein.
1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH
The Aim of this project is to assess the maritime security, information and communications Technology application in Maritime.
The specific objectives are as follows;
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To have an overview of the maritime security and ICT application in maritime.
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To determine if there is an increase and efficiency in port security operations due to application of ICT.
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To determine if there port security efficiency is attributed to the application of ICT in Maritime operations.
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