Seafaring: Economic imperative burdened by insufficient training

In view of the economic contributions of seafarers in trade facilitation between nations, Amaka Anagor  who witnessed the maiden edition of United Nations

Seafarer’s  Day in Nigeria, writes that if nothing is done to improve the training  programme for mariners, the country would face dearth of professionals to man her vessels
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention in 2010 earmarked June 25 of each year as United Nations Day of the Seafarer in order to recognize the unique contributions of seamen all over the world towards the development of international seaborne trade. On that day, Nigeria as a maritime nation joined the rest of the world to celebrate her seafarers in a remarkable way at the Onikan Stadium in Lagos in a colourful event organized by the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM) in line with IMO requirement.
Business Day learnt at the celebration that the problem with seafaring profession in the country is not the recognition of their contributions but the decline in the number of experienced mariners in the country. Top of the issues outlined by concerned stakeholders at the event was inadequate training resulting from insufficient training institutions to produce qualified sea cadets capable of manning Nigerian vessels as well as foreign owned ships that operate within the nation’s coastal areas. Research has shown that since the demise of Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), a national shipping carrier that trained majority of the experienced seafarers the country has today, Nigeria has not been able to get a reliable training institution where young cadets can acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge on the job despite the establishment of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron.  Within IMO, the maritime training institution in Nigeria,MAN Oron, is identified with the unenviable reputation of lacking  adequate training equipment needed in the industry. The 33-year old academy does not have ocean-going vessels to equip its cadets with practical knowledge needed to be qualified seafarers.
Adebayo Sarumi, former managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) admitted that there had been a gap in the training process of seafarers in Nigeria. He wants both government and private sector who use the services of seafarers to find lasting solutions to the declining number of seamen in the country. To fill the training gap, there is need for Nigeria to ensure that various schools established in the country to train seafarers have the capacity and integrity to produce competent cadets capable of delivering the services required of a professional seafarer. Similarly, Adejimi Adun, president of Association of Master Mariners bemoaned the training state of Nigerian seafarers which he attributed to the inability of the country to empower indigenous ship owners to acquire and own ships that would be used to train mariners. The problem, according to him, lies in funding vessel acquisition which high cost makes it difficult for individuals to afford. Findings have revealed that it takes several million dollars to buy a small crude boat and Nigerian ship owners pay up to 14 percent of the ship cost, which is as high as N25 million on import duty. Therefore, there is need to empower indigenous ship operators technically so that 100 percent efficient training would be provided for Nigerian sea cadets.
Sarumi who was the chairman of the occasion tasked the private sector to contribute their quota towards the training of seafarers in Nigerian, adding that a well-trained seafarer would give best of services to the employer. “Majority of today’s Nigerian master mariners were trained by NNSL before the company was liquidated while the private sector served as the highest employers of that group of seamen; therefore, it is time to call on private sector operators to be part of the training process of seafarers”, he added.
He also believes that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in its Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), which is a public-private partnership training initiative, needs to reduce its dependence on the state governments and shift attention to private operators to finance the training programme. Most of the state governments, he said, are currently undergoing financial pressure, thus the need to look beyond them and support the seafarers training programme in the country.
The major challenge facing training of seafarers in Nigeria is not only unavailability of credible training institutions but lack of training vessels for sea cadets. Studies have also shown that about 80 percent of Nigerian-owned ships are not actively engaged in coastal trade and this does not encourage indigenous investors to own vessels, a development that would provide gainful employment opportunities for trained mariners. This is why some professional seamen today are not gainfully employed while some who are employed do not have lucrative welfare package because the vessels they are manning hardly secure lucratice contracts.  Nevertheless, Solomon Omotesho, chairman standing committee that organized the event stated that Nigeria on a yearly basis lose several billions of dollars to capital flight due to foreign domination of the nation’s coastal trade. As a result, he wants the concerned stakeholders to accord priority to the training of seafarers in Nigeria and provide them with quality jobs in order to reduce capital flight.    Omar Suleiman, managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority, assured that NPA would contribute its quota towards the training of seafarers in different categories to fit into the need of the authority and other sectors of maritime industry in order to reduce the challenges experienced in the course of knowledge acquisition.  In all, to safeguard qualitative training for Nigerian seafarers, experts believe that there is need to encourage indigenous participation in coastal trade through proper implementation of Cabotage Act and Local content Development Act, so that employment opportunities would be made available to Nigerian-owned vessels.
Source: Business Day