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Monday 26 January 200927,000 seafarers needed to meet international maritime business by 2015
Nigeria needs no less than 27,000 trained seafarers by 2015 if it must meet up with the growing international maritime business. To achieve this feat, private sector participation is highly needed to provide the necessary ship training skill that will meet the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standard.
Sunday Omotosho stated this recently, saying that Nigeria does not have the capacity to train seafarers because of lack of trading vessels.
A master mariner, Omotosho explained that all the 95 percent of vessels trading in Nigerian waters are owned by foreigners, stressing that the indigenes could not acquire vessels because they were not getting contracts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“The whole essence of Cabotage (Coastal and Inland shipping) was to create job for Nigerians, as well as provide training opportunities for the seafarers, but unfortunately, the whole arrangement has been truncated as government give waivers to foreign companies without mandating them to train the seafarers”, Omotosho stated.
He advised that Nigeria should enter into agreement with foreign companies on the number of cadets they should train every year otherwise vessels trading in the country’s waters would continue to be dominated by foreigners.
The marine consultant pointed out that there was nothing wrong to include Nigerians on board NNPC vessels, which was being operated in partnership with a South Korean company.
He further noted that the country would not experience the needed growth in the maritime sector, as long as government was participating in nautical schools because of the bureaucracy involved in releasing money for capacity building and infrastructure development.
On his part, the former president, Master Mariners Association of Nigeria, Niyi Adeyemo, said government may not meet up with the challenges in the maritime sector because the Cabotage regime had been abused.
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