Manpower devt essential to regaining Nigeria’s shipping business – stakeholders

Effective manpower development in the maritime sector is an essential means of capturing the nation’s over N2 trillion-worth shipping business from foreign-owned shipping lines, industry stakeholders have said.

According to them, Nigeria needs to invest in the training of qualified and competent seafarers, master mariners, marine engineers and nautical scientists to be able to empower indigenous participation in the shipping business.

The stakeholders said this at the 2014 Seafarer’s day tagged ‘Seafarers Brought Me’ organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos last week.

Alalade Mathew, national president, Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, who spoke on the theme ‘Impact of Seafarers Capacity Building to the Maritime Sector and the Nation’s Economy’, said producing qualified seafarers in Nigeria would not only help in addressing the dearth of manpower in the sector, but would also contribute to the manpower needs of the international shipping community.

He expressed belief that training would help to fill the gaps created by shortage of manpower supply in the Cabotage trade as well as international trade, and particularly get Nigerian-owned shipping lines involved in the lifting of crude oil.

“Capacity building would help in addressing the issue of capital flight occasioned by repairing ships abroad and create opportunity for Nigerian cadets to be trained in Naval Architecture so that manpower would be built. It would also aid the development of shipyard for building ships as required by Cabotage law,” Mathew explained.

Affirming that investment in the development of human capacity would result to the growth of the maritime industry, he said manpower development would also result to the development of future nautical scientists, naval architects and marine engineers who would close capacity gaps in Nigeria’s ship building.

Bolaji Akinola, MARAN president, observed that about 6,000 cadets of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron were yet to undergo sea-time experience, which had been the bane of their growth.

Akinola also noted that Nigeria needed to establish a national carrier and revive the business of indigenous ship owners, urging the government to take the sea-time training for cadets seriously by acquiring training vessels for the nation’s maritime institutions.

He further said the government needed to utilise the Cabotage Vessel Financing Funds (CVFF) to acquire vessels for ship owners, which would provide opportunity for Nigerian cadets, adding that when indigenous ship owners have ships, it would be easy to put the cadets on board the ships.

Alex Nwangwu, a master mariner, who observed that about 88 percent of vessels operating in Nigerian waters were owned by foreigners, suggested that the Federal Government should get the shipping lines to sponsor cadets and train them onboard their vessels. He further said the nation needed to gradually train seafarers so as to get them ready and available for the coastal trade as required by the Cabotage law.

Uzoamaka Anagor