The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) held on Thursday, November 11, 2021, the project's third rotating technical meeting on “Enhancing Regional Research, Stakeholder Convening and Capacity Development in the Gulf of Guinea. On the occasion, the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh called on the Gulf of Guinea countries to harmonize laws.

Shipping is an international business and the crimes associated with it are also international in nature. A situation that invokes the need to carry out common reforms. Thus, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh called for the standardization of the legal frameworks of the countries of the Gulf of Guinea to help in the effective prosecution of maritime crimes. “No country can fight maritime insecurity alone. It is a collective responsibility. There is hardly any nation that does not have a commercial interest in the Gulf of Guinea. We must therefore work to ensure uniformity of legal frameworks across the region to facilitate effective prosecution of maritime crimes,” he said.

Noting that some countries were already enacting their own anti-piracy laws, he said efforts were being made to standardize regional maritime law enforcement. At the end of the meeting organized in partnership with NIMASA and the Interregional Coordination Center (CIC), a press release calling for the transformation of the Yaoundé Code of Conduct into a binding convention for better coordination and optimal benefit for the countries members was published.