A maritime education and training institution in Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt, Charkin Maritime Academy (CMA), at the weekend, announced its interim accreditation from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
The accreditation from the NBTE is for CMA to run two critical National Diploma (ND) programmes, namely Nautical Science and Marine Engineering.
It is on record that CMA is one of the first private maritime academies to be accredited by the NBTE to run diploma programmes in the two courses.
Already, the school has kick-started the process of admitting fresh students for the 2021/2022 academic sessions just as it has fixed February 13, 2021 as the date for its entrance examination.
A statement by its acting Provost, Dr. Egben Okore, explained that with the NBTE accreditation, more Nigerians and foreigners intending to build a rewarding career at sea can now be trained in the noble profession of Shipmaster and Marine Chief Engineer without leaving the shores of Nigeria to spend foreign currency for the same or even higher quality of training.
Apparently elated by the development, the Founder of CMA, Charles Wami, said: “Receiving accreditation from the NBTE to offer National Diploma in Nautical Science and Marine Engineering in the academy in 2020 has been one of my happiest moments in my four years as CMA Founder”.
“Our passion to build capacity for the Nigerian maritime industry and the need to fill the gap in unmet demands for the admission of young Nigerian school leavers into institutions of higher learning helped us in no small way. I could not be happier for the academy, her Governing Council, the Academic Board and Staff,” he added.
Wami revealed that to gain the momentous achievement, CMA gave it all it takes in terms of building training infrastructure such as modern classrooms, 200 – capacity cadets’ hostel and dining saloon, modern library, marine engineering laboratories and workshops as well as multi-purpose hall.
“Others were the recruitment of qualified and experienced staff (including master mariners, marine chief engineers and maritime education and training experts); procurement of teaching aids, especially marine simulators, namely Full Mission Bridge; Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS); Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) ; Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD); and high voltage; basic and advance dynamic positioning simulators,” according to him.