The Nigerian Martime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has embarked on the training of professional seafarers, as part of efforts to raise the required qualified indigenous manpower in the maritime industry, in line with the policies of the Federal Government.

The Tide has gathered that NIMASA has taken further steps in this respect to sensitise states across the country to mobilise their indigenes, especially those within the coastal states to take part in the training exercise.

Reliable sources from the NIMASA zonal office in Port Harcourt told The Tide that the agency is poised to train these seafarers oversees in marine engineering and nautical science, pointing out that most of the workers in the Martime Industry who claim to be professional seafarers do not possess the qualifications for seafaring and that such have deprived them of jobs which require professionals.

The source also disclosed that the essence of the recent Cabotage Act of the federal government was to give indigenous maritime workers and operators the opportunity to take over work done by their foreign counterparts.

He said that the Nigerian Maritime activities was highly dominated by foreigners which had caused indigenes to be relegated to the background, but that the Cabotage policy is making a difference.

According to the source “most of the maritime workers who claimed to be professionals are actually not professionals. We have had cause to examine some of them to see if they possess the minimal qualification for seafaring which mostly ended in negative.”

“We have some times not allowed some of these workers to take up the professional jobs, and they complain that we allow foreigners to do their job whereas regulation has spelt out who a seafarer should be. Some of them are taking the challenge to get the required qualification, he added.

Corlins Walter