UK INDUSTRIES SUPPORTED BY UK GOVERNMENT MARITIME SECURITY SOLUTIONS

30 Jul 2014

The British High Commissioner in Abuja, His Excellency Mr Andrew Pocock, welcomed BISEN and the member companies to the first Maritime Security Industry Day on board HMS IRON DUKE which was hosted by kind permission of the Commanding Officer, Commander Tom Tredray Royal Navy.

Andrew Pocock said “the relationship between the United Kingdom and Nigeria is long standing and strong. We work together in diverse areas such as political and international relations, education and research, security and defence, as well as issues of economic and trade interest to Nigeria and the UK.”

Nineteen of the BISEN member companies took part in the demonstration of the capabilities that the UK could offer. Many Nigerian government officials and commercial representatives attended the sunset reception and the industry presentations and expressed interest in visiting the United Kingdom to see first hand the capabilities that were described. Admiral Sanmi Alade, Flag Officer Westaren Naval Command, was the senior Nigerian Naval representative and took the sunset salute.

HMS Iron Duke took part in a passage exercise on the way into Abuja and exercised with elements of the Nigerian Navy, the Maritime Technical Information Sharing Centre – Gulf of Guinea based in Ghana and the broader maritime industry including insurers such as DNK to successfully test the commercial operator’s preparedness and response drills to potential maritime threats.

BISEN employs a five block Capabililty Group model to structure its maritime security dialogue with Nigeria. The same structure is used to help the members to articulate their capabilities in relation to the overall offer for integrated solutions, including training and support.

Three of those Capability Groups represent the geographical Maritime Security areas and recognise the stakeholders that operate in them and the different equipment that they use. Also of the different challenges they face and the operational duties they are expected to perform. These are Capability Groups 1, 2 and 3.
One Capability Group is focussed on the technical integration of the 3 geographical Maritime Security areas and providing better situational awareness of the activities across the areas to give better opportunities for governance, decision making, command and control and directed action. That is Capability Group 4.
One Capability Group is focussed on education, skills development, training and mentoring to build capacity and a professional national maritime security response for Nigeria. That is Capability Group 5.

With the right equipment, training, infrastructure and support Nigeria will be able to secure its maritime and energy resources to build national prosperity which in turn would encourage further international investment and trading opportunities; Nigeria clearly expresses this intent in its “Oil & Gas Master Plan”.