By Uzor Odigbo
Director General of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has disclosed that cost of owning and operating a training vessel far outweighs cost of outsourcing the training service to foreign companies.
Speaking in Lagos at a parley with maritime Journalists, Peterside said only South Africa had tried it in the whole of African continent.
According to him, the South African Maritime Safety Agency (SAMSA) had procured a training ship which has been out of use for 8 years due to high cost of manning and maintenance.
Under NIMASA Medium Term Strategic plan, Peterside told Journalists that a total of 298 Nigerian seafarers have been placed onboard ocean going vessels in the United Kingdom and Egypt.
He added that NIMASA is about entering a five year agreement with the United Arab Shipping Line for a hundred slots spread into 20 persons yearly.
NIMASA , according to him has secured job placements for 2337 Nigerian seafarers onboard cabotage vessels between January and June 2018 while 125 new vessels , mostly owned by Nigerian business men have been registered under the scheme.
He said a total of 5700 seafarers and dock workers have been retrained under the agency’s capacity building programme; 105 percent increase in number of foreign ships inspected in Nigerian ports.
On flag state control which involves local and foreign ships flying Nigerian flags, Peterside said the agency recorded 27 percent increase and 21 percent increase in coastal trade vessels.
On training certification, he said Certificate of Competence (CoC) being issued by NIMASA now enjoys wider acceptability across various countries. He disclosed that a total of 3792 CoCs have been issued under his watch.