By Uzor Odigbo
Alain Michel Luvambano, Secretary General of Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa ( MOWCA), has advocated stronger collaboration of Navies and coast guards in Africa as a way to harness maritime benefits of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Luvambano who commended the Nigerian government for being the first to come up with an anti-piracy law on the continent said fighting piracy and sea robberies in Africa will be a strong way to promote trade on waters in line with the spirit of AfCFTA.
According to him, if Navies share information and apply relevant technologies, criminals and criminality will be curbed on the continent’s waters.
He added that cost of insurance may likely reduce and shipowners security concerns on African waters with attendant cost implications would have been largely addressed, if this is achieved.
He said: “We in MOWCA have read the AfCFTA agreement and seen that not much was said about maritime whereas that is where the highest volume of trade happens in Africa and the world.
“If fear of likely attack on vessels in some parts of our waters are addressed, this will boost more trade, reduce cost of insurance and improve wealth for African citizens.
“We have put some things in place for closer monitoring of developments on African waters that sees what goes on in 25 countries. I created the Centre for Information and Communication, which I call CINFOCOM, back in 2014.
“Information I get from my CINFOCOM centre confirms that a lot are being achieved by various maritime administrations in Africa and these improvements are very commendable, though we need to do more.
“The center also serves as a maritime observatory unit that contributes to our interface with various maritime administrations and countries through their focal points.
“As a matter of MOWCA policy under my administration, we employed youths who are knowledgeable about ICT to be on the CINFOCOM desk as a way of preparing younger people to understudy us and take over in the nearest future.
“We are also concerned about preparing our maritime manpower base through training and retraining of our youths in our academies in Côte D’Ivore and the Regional Maritime University in Ghana.
“I must commend the signing of an anti piracy law by Nigerian government. This is the first in Africa and worthy of emulation. We participated and saw the outcome of a Global Maritime Security Conference held in Nigeria.
“We urge all participating countries and organisations to pursue full implementation of resolutions reached at that high powered event not only for the good of trade among Africans but also for benefit of organisations and countries doing business across African waters.”
MOWCA has opened talks with member francophone countries to upgrade it’s Abidjan based Regional Maritime Academy for Sciences and Technologies of the Sea to a maritime university.
MOWCA sources disclosed that the decision for the upgrade came up at a recent 12th Board of Governors’ meeting held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The academy in Abidjan is the Specialised Organ of MOWCA in charge of training of seafarers and land based staff of the shipping industry for the 15 francophone member States of MOWCA.
This is to make it come to same level as the sister training institution for anglophone countries, Regional Maritime University, based in Accra, Ghana.
It was agreed that a consultant will be appointed by the Management of RMA to conduct a broad study on sea training of cadets on board vessels sailing in the Gulf of Guinea.
