By Steve Agbota [email protected]
Over 90 per cent of goods around the world, are transported by ships. These ships are manned by seafarers for different services while transporting the goods from one country to another.
But as demand for global freight increases, maritime trade volumes are set to triple by 2050, demand for manpower in the shipping industry will also be on the rise.
However, the past decade has witnessed an increase in the global trading fleet, partly on account of developments in Asia and other emerging opportunities.
In Nigeria, the demand for seafarers has also increased on account of the Cabotage regime, which requires that vessel engaged in commercial trade and operations in the coastal and inland waters in Nigeria should be manned by Nigerians.
Taking the advantage of this opportunity, the Federal Government redoubled its efforts by investing and sending thousands of cadets to outside the country to be certified as international standard seafarers under under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP). The essence of the investment and the training is to increase the pool of Nigerian seafarers for export to other countries and to generate forex just like the Philippines that currently raking in $7 billion in forex inflow from their seafarers employed around the world.
The NSDP which, was initiated by NIMASA in 2008 with the sole mandate of training Nigerian youths to become seafarers and Naval Architects in fulfilling one of its core in the area of maritime capacity building.
The programme was designed to train Nigerian youths up to Degree level in Marine Engineering, Nautical Sciences and Naval Architecture in some of the best Maritime Training Institutions (MTIs) abroad and to position them to compete effectively in the global Maritime Industry.
From inception in 2008 over 2,000 students has been trained in Marine Engineering, Nautical Science and Naval Architecture, of which many are now gainfully employed and sailing on both coastal and international vessels.
Recently, Ministry of Transportation and NIMASA sent forth 235 Nigerians to India and Greece as batch B of the 435 young Nigerians to be trained as Licenced Deck and Engine Officers including Naval Architects NSDP.
Speaking at the flag off of the third phase of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Program (NSDP) TERRA 2, the Minister of Transportation, Muazu Jaji Sambo said that the Federal Government’s decision to continue with the project is based on the role its playing in developing capacity for the Nigerian maritime industry.
“The success of this laudable policy cannot be overemphasised, therefore the Federal Ministry of Transportation will continue to encourage and partner with NIMASA on NSDP and other policies on the development of a sustainable maritime based economy (Blue Economy).
“Hence, the Ministry explicitly gave its nod on the expansion of the Programme by another set of 435 new students to be recruited into the NSDP. The flag off of the 3rd phase of NSDP Christened NSDP-TERRA’ marks another milestone in the development of manpower in line with the Federal Government’s policy on youth empowerment.
“The programme as an intervention was designed to train Nigerian youths to become seafarers. The choice of foreign Maritime Training Institutions (MTIs) was mainly based on capacity and certification of the Institutions in the area of maritime training (STCW) by IMO,” he said.
According to him, the initiative targeted training globally competitive officers that will erase the unfortunate discrimination that exists between local and foreign trained officers in practice.
Meanwhile, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, said that the programme was designed to train Nigerian youths up to degree level in Marine Engineering, Nautical Sciences and Naval Architecture in some of the best Maritime Training Institutions (MTIs) abroad and to position them to compete effectively in the global Maritime Industry.
According to him, it was noted that the number of Nigerian seafarers on ocean going vessels as at then had depleted over the years and the urgent need to boost it adequately for effective implementation of the coastal and inland shipping policy of the Government, informed the initiative.
At some point, he said that Nigeria had less than 10 seafarers on ocean going vessels, while countries like the Philippines had over 400,000 , and currently $6 billion in forex inflow from their seafarers employed around the world. He hinted that countries like India, Indonesia and China also have their nationals all around the world working in the maritime industries. It is hoped that with continuous progress made and better projections in the NSDP, Nigeria will soon be among the major players in the global maritime sector.
“It is important to note that from inception to 2020, the programme has enrolled 2,041 students, while 892 are now licensed deck and engine officers including naval Architects, the rest are in their final stage of the programme. It may please the Minister to know that about 486 of the graduates are now gainfully employed and sailing in both coastal and ocean going vessels,”he said.
Speaking on the third phase of NSDP (NSDP TERRA), he said the Agency and the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT) satisfied with the above success and the need to drive the policy of the Federal Government on youths empowerment to a laudable height approved the expansion of the programme by 435 new intakes (christened NSDP TERRA).
“While implementing this, we took into account of the encumbrances encountered in the operations of the programme in the last 12 years and ways of eliminating or minimising them. These include: consideration of a recruitment plan that selects the best candidates into the NSDP, spreading beneficiaries across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
“Others are introducing a conduct of conduct for all beneficiaries enrolled into the programme to safeguard the image of the country, selection of Maritime Training Institutions (MTIs) that offers the three training elements of the programme (shore-based training, shipboard training and the certificate of competency), this is to eliminate the long delay in securing sea time training berths that was experienced with the previous set of students,” he said.
He said NIMASA comparatively got the most reasonable cost for the training and in countries of mutual recognition of CoC with Nigeria, adding that in the mean time NIMASA have recruited 400 new students into the programme and secured admission in two reputable MTIs in Greece and India.