By GOWIN ORITSE

THE Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has expended N1.16 billion to train about 75 young Nigerians in the seafaring profession in different parts of the world.

Disclosing to Vanguard at the recently concluded World Maritime Day celebration, NIMASA’s  Director- General, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, said the agency had concluded plans to acquire an electronic pooling system with a view to getting Nigerian seafarers registered, verified and placed on board vessels anywhere in the world.

Akpobolokemi who was represented by the Director  of Maritime Labour Services, Alhaji Isa Baba said most of the cadets were on the verge of rounding up their programmes in various areas of nautical sciences.

He stated the seafarers’ day was aimed at highlighting the problems and the challenges facing the world seafarers  who contribute more than 80 per cent to world trade.

He noted that these crewmen due to the nature of their job stay away from their families for a long period of time.

“So, we want to highlight the contribution of these people to the world with a view to appreciating their contributions towards the development of trade and commerce worldwide,” he said.

On the move to fill the 250,000 vacancies  that will be available by the year 2015, the NIMASA boss  explained that Nigerians do have to look out for jobs outside their shore as the vacancies available in the coastal trade were enough to accommodate qualified local seafarers.

He said: “If you even restrict yourself to the Nigerian coastal trade otherwise known as Cabotage, we have over 50,000 jobs and because of lack of capacity, most of these jobs are being taken by the foreigners.

“NIMASA as an agency, has started the development of seafaring. We have commenced the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) where each state of the federation is expected to participate by sending 25 young Nigerians from the states on a yearly basis.

“NIMASA pays 40 per cent of the cost while the states concerned make counterpart payment of 60 per cent.

“We also realised that one of the problems we have is  issue of seafarers’ training institute, the agency is the moment exploiting areas where some partnership will be for the development of seafarers.”

“So far, we have only the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron and the academy is not capable of providing our needs in that respect.

“Already, the agency is making plans to go into partnership with the Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Niger Delta University, Rivers State University of Technology to train more seafarers over a period of time.”.

He further disclosed that substantial amount of money had been voted for this purpose and urged young Nigerians to avail themselves of this unique opportunity.

On why some the coastal states are yet to buy into NSDP project, Baba said NIMASA was still meeting with stakeholders in these states to strategise  their participation and within a short time the challenges of non-participation of the coastal states will be over.