By Steve Agbota
In line with its mandate of developing capacity for the Nigerian maritime industry, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has concluded plans for the commencement of the training of 250 Nigerian cadets. This is also in keeping with one of the three performance pillars of the Director-General, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, known as Shipping Development. Representing the DG of NIMASA at a media parley at the Agency’s Eastern Zonal office in Port Harcourt, the Special Assistant on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Ubong Essien, noted that Jamoh had at the inception of his administration in March 2020 outline a Triple ‘S’ agenda of Maritime Security, Maritime Safety and Shipping Development. And that the NIMASA boss was committed to ensuring that adequate capacity for the industry was built to ensure economic prosperity through the maritime domain. While some of the cadets are due for sea-time training, others will undergo the mandatory CoC and will be trained in the Philippines, UK and Romania. According to the Agency, these 250 cadets represent just the first of three batches planned for future training.
Also present at the parley was the chief host, the Eastern Zonal Coordinator and Director, Mallam Sani Audu, who encouraged the media to engage more with the agency at the zonal level in order to educate the Nigerian public on some of the major interventions of the zone especially in the area of removal of water hyacinth to ensure safer navigational channels for ships and vessels; and marine litter and plastics clearing for the restoration of the cleanness of the waters in the zone at various hotspot locations.