NIMASA Raises Alarm Over Failures In CoC Exams

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has expressed worries over the rate of failures by Nigerian seafarers who have sat for the Certificate of Competency (CoC) Examinations in the past two years.
This is coming on the heals of the announcement of an increase of 32.4 per cent in its activities in respect of Flag State and Port State last year, compared to the level attained the previous year.
In a scorecard disclosed to journalists, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, said that under the officers cadre, out of 829 who sat for the examination in 2020, 565 did not pass in what represented a 68 percent failure.
Jamoh said a total number of certificates revalidated for 2021 was 246, adding that it has also revived its online seafarers Certificates of Competency verification platform to enable shipowners have access to confirm the genuineness of seafarers CoC as necessary for employment.
Expressing dismay over this development, the DG said the agency was liaising with various institutions to see how this issue can be addressed.
While attributing the rate of failure to a number of factors, he expressed optimism that this could be overcome before June this year.
“For Officers ratings, the total number that sat for the exams were 1,251, out of this, 926 passed, representing 74%.
“The total number of candidates that failed is 325, representing 26% failure.
“In the examination for ratings in 2021, the total number of students who sat for the exams are 1,327. This is a sharp increase against the 2020 figure of 1,251.
“The total number of candidates passed is 990, constituting 74% pass.
“Total number of candidates failed is 337 with a percentage failure of 26%”, he said.
On the introduction of online verification platforms on certificates, the DG said this has been able to check forgery and boost employment of Nigerian seafarers.
“We have been experiencing rejection and discrimination against Nigerian seafarers by shipowners both locally and internationally.
“This is why the agency decided to introduce the online seafarers certificates of Competency verification platform which allowed shipowners to access these candidates that passed our examinations directly from the comfort of their offices
.“With this, we reduced the forgery of our certificates and improved the standard and confidence of our certification” ,he stated.

By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos