Director of policy at the Ministry for National Security, Dr Osei Bonsu Dickson, has revealed that the National Integrated Maritime Strategy (NIMS), has been designed to address challenges within the maritime sector.
According to him, NIMS can be likened to a Bible for the maritime sector in Ghana. He indicated that it is a document to look at how government structures institutionally, the maritime sector within its legal operational framework and the entire ecosystem of maritime governance.
Dr Dickson stated that considering the coastal ecosystem of maritime today, it’s in some kind of limbo in terms of law and legislation. Owing to this, he noted that government deemed it necessary to look at how legislation is developed to meet the consistently agile criminal threats that confront the country- both within the region, outside the region, and globally, to position Ghana to think in terms of regional and international interest.
“If you come back to the institutional structure, the document for example, brings into existence for the first time in the last six years, a national maritime council – that has never happened before. It brings into fruition, a national maritime coordinator… So, you have different specter of actors within this space with a plethora of institutions that are there, but you need to have coordination just as we do have for the national security architecture.
“You have a coordinating mechanism in the nature of the national security coordinator – we don’t have somebody like that when you come to the maritime sectors. Now, you have to think about blue economy… The oceans are worth about $24 trillion, so they are an alternate wealth for every country and for coastal states, it’s a monumental gain if you have the seas by you…”
Dr Osei Bonsu Dickson
Effective implementation of NIMS
Commenting on how the NIMS implementation will be undertaken effectively, Dr Dickson stated that although the effective implementation of strategies has been the nemesis of the country and other countries, government will do its best to ensure it’s done aptly. He highlighted that one of the important things to bear in mind has to do with the institutional makeup when devising such policies.
“I think the way NIMS has been orchestrated in terms of consultations that have gone on and then also the kinds of divisions of labour that has gone on in this particular document, by assigning for example, responsibilities that are well-attuned GMA to GMA, those that are well-attuned to the navy to the navy [will work]…”
Dr Osei Bonsu Dickson
Furthermore, Dr Dickson indicated that the ministry has equally tried to learn from previous defects in previous policies implementations to fine-tune its operations. He emphasized that the allocation of such activities to a particular person who will be undertaking activities on a day-to-day basis as a national objective, has been internalized and ingrained into NIMS to address.
“Normally, I will say that amateurs produce a strategy, serious professionals implement it, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. But over the course of last few years, I think that we are also learning our lessons by that and if you pick the incidentals that occurred before the strategy was even first hammered out, those same conversation about how we implement this thing came up, bearing in mind the proper architecture that can help for proper implementation. In most strategies sometimes, the failure is you don’t have somebody who will go ahead and implement it…”
Dr Osei Bonsu Dickson
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo, is expected to launch the National Integrated Maritime Strategy (NIMS) on August 29, 2023, at Burma Hall in Accra.
The launch will occur during the 3rd Edition of the International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference (IMDEC) opening ceremony in Accra.
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