African states sign Port State Control

Sixteen West and Central African States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Port State Control (PSC). This means only the Gulf area and the Black Sea remain uncovered by PSC and MOUs for these are expected to be signed early in 2000.

The West and Central African agreement covers was Benin, Cape Verde, Congo, Cote d`Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Togo. Angola, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea attended the meeting and agreed to sign at a later date.

As the administrative measures and training will take some time to put in place, the MOU will not become fully effective for three years. The Regional Secretariat for the MOU will be in Lagos, Nigeria while a regional Information Centre will be in Abidjan, Cote d`Ivoire.

Unusually, the West and Central African MOU will also cover PSC inspections on ships below 500g – not generally covered by most IMO regulations, as these vessels tend to trade inter-regionally. The MOU requires that within three years of the MOU becoming effective, each signatory must establish an effective PSC system inspecting at least 15 per cent of foreign merchant ships entering the region`s ports.