Africa Ferry Safety Seminar in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

SPEECH ON AFRICA FERRY SAFETY SEMINAR HELD AT JULIUS NYERERE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTER, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA FROM 16TH TO 17TH APRIL, 2024 DELIVERED BY HON. DR. KHALID SALUM MOHAMED, MINISTER OF INFRASTRUCTURES, COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT OF ZANZIBAR.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transport - Mainland, Tanzania, Professor Godius Kahyarara,

Deputy Principal Secretary - Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Infrastructure, Communication and Transport, Zanzibar, Mr. Makame Machano Haji,

IMO Senior Deputy Director, Mr. Vincent Job,

IMO Lead Consultant, Mr. Willian Azuh,

IMO Regional Coordinator, Mr. Dave Muli,

Director of Maritime Safety and Environment, Ministry of Transport, Ms. Stella Katondo,

Director General, Tanzania Shipping Agency, (TASAC), Mr. Mohamed Salum,

Director General, Zanzibar Maritime Authority, Ms. Sheikha Ahmed Mohamed,

Principal, Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI), Dr. Tumaini Ngurumo

Distinguished Partipants and Invited

Members of Media,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

NAWASALIMIA KWA JINA LA JAMUHURI YA MUUNGANO

It is a great honour and privilege for me to have this opportunity to be with you in the opening of this important Seminar on Africa Ferry Safety which is being held here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

At the outset, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania to sincerely welcome all our guests coming from outside Tanzania to attend this event.

We thank International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for the decision to organize this important Seminar and for bringing together all key stakeholders from Africa and beyond, to Tanzania.

Indeed, the Africa Ferry Safety Seminar presents to us a unique opportunity to collectively discuss, share experience and finally come up with viable suggestions aiming at addressing concerns that we are having on the issue of ferry safety across our continent.

Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many countries in Africa relies heavily on maritime transport for interlinking regions and people. 

As such, the industry plays a significant role in the socio - economic development of the continent. Passenger Ferry in archipelago islands such as Zanzibar, Comoro, Mauritius and Sao Tome & Principe is one of the most important transport modes, serving both locals and tourists alike.

It is also important in countries with extensive riverine systems and great lakes such as Tanzania Mainland, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.

However, in many African countries and even in other continents, ferry transportation is frequently associated with accidents and fatalities.

Deadly ferry accidents are fairly common, and globally, ferry accidents have caused numerous deaths and injuries.

Even a single accident can, at times, cause fatalities in the order of hundreds of lives besides property losses.

Majority of marine accidents are due to unsafe practices by ferry operators, crew members, terminal and maritime administrations, poor design of the vessels (stability issues), bad weather, insufficient safety equipment on-board and aids to navigation.

In order to address these challenges, African countries need to strengthen security measures and put in place safety management systems that ensure ferry safety and prevention maritime accidents.

These measures include but not limited to, using appropriate navigational technologies, setting appropriate routes, upholding the carrying out of the regular vessels inspection, tracking the movement of the vessels and monitoring of the weather condition.

In addition, we need to ensure that terminal operators, maritime administrators and crew members are properly trained in their respective areas of operations to enhance safety of the passengers and vessels while at the terminal and en-route.

Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We, in Tanzania still haunted by memories of deadly ferry boats accidents of M.V Spice Islander and M.V Skagit occurred in 2011 and 2012 respectively, which claimed the lives of many people, mostly women and children. Sad memories are still fresh from the fatal accidents of of MV Bukoba and MV Nyerere occurred in Lake Victoria in 1996 and 2018 respectively, caused many deaths, injuries and loss of property.

In response to these accidents, our two governments (the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar) have taken a number of corrective and preventive measures to enhance safety of domestic ferry, which include reviewing of legislation, restriction of registration of altered ferries to operate, introduction of age limit restriction for the registration of ships and continuously building the capacity of the maritime administrations.

Morever, We conduct safety awareness seminars and workshops annually during celebration of seafarers day and world maritime day.

Distinguished participants,

It is good to note that, the International maritime community has taken serious note of the challenges that our countries in this continent are facing and is continuously seeking to enhance safety in domestic ferry sector through various measures including conducting research to further explore on the topic of ferry safety.

In that regard, in 2023 World Maritime University, a prestigious university under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) conducted scoping study on the safety of domestic ferry industries in seven world high-risk countries based on the number incidents and casualties.

Out of seven countries ranked as high risk on safety of domestic ferry, four are found in Africa, and these countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal. Nigeria and Tanzania.

Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Provided that, ferry safety is multi-stakeholders concern, it is imperative to all of us to forge a stronger partnership and collaboration in addressing the inherent challenges, as clearly indicated in the Scoping Study report issued by the World Maritime University.

Countries need to establish collaboration and cooperation in communication and information sharing, undertaking joint capacity building programmes in surveillance and rescue operations and organize exchange programs and benchmarking.

IMO and other international agencies have crucial role to play in supporting our efforts in achieving ferry safety standards through creation of more awareness, training/capacity building and resource mobilization.

There is also a need to carry out joint harmonization of the guidelines and standard operating procedures and in conducting regular/periodic safety assessments for our terminals and ferry operators.

Distinguished participants,

It is my firm belief that this gathering of eminent personalities and renowned experts in the maritme industry will go deeper into identifying key challenges that Africa Ferry transport is facing and being able to propose sound and workable solutions to address them.

Going forward, I further believe that during these two days of your deliberations into the ferry safety issues, you may as well come up with suggestions on how Africa can establish a regional platform for sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences and build stronger partnership in order to keep ferry operations safe across the Africa and attain international safety standards and compliance.

Distinguished participants,

Looking at the agenda before you, there are a lot of important issues to discuss and tasks to accomplish in these two days of your meeting here and for that reason, I don’t wish to take much of your valuable time.

But I wish to conclude my brief speech by encouraging our guests coming from outside Tanzania to take advantage of being here, to consider extending your stay for few more days after the seminar to visit and have a look at some of our tourists attractions.

You may plan to visit the Mountain Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and Ngorongoro wildlife or cross the channel to the beautiful island of Zanzibar and get the opportunity to conduct the exotic stone town (the world heritage site), spice tours and enjoy the white sand beaches in the North and East coast of the Unguja Island.

Once again, let me thank the organizers for convening this important seminar here in Tanzania, and I thank all participants for finding time out of their busy schedules and be able to be here with us. With these few remarks, I declare this two -day regional seminar on Africa ferry safety officially open and wish you fruitful deliberations.

Thank you for your attention