By Eguono Odjegba

The Nigerianisation objectives of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, has been realized.

Managing Director of NLNG, Shipping and Marine Services Limited, NSML,  Abdulkadir Ahmed who disclosed this claimed that since the creation of the Maritime Center of Excellence, MCOE, the specialized energy training arm of the company, Nigerian seafarers have taken over 85 per cent of the manning crew of the 13 LNG and LPG vessels on the fleet of the Nigerian LNG.

Ahmed in a chat with Vanguard in Lagos said NSML was created with the sole purpose of domesticating international maritime skill sets locally and providing opportunities for Nigerians to participate in that sphere.

“We have a Nigerianization objective, which we have achieved as 85 per cent of the seafarers on our vessel today are Nigerians. It was a deliberate effort on our part to say, we are a Nigerian company and in line with our purpose we want to domesticate and you cannot domesticate by simply importing foreigners to do the job.

“So it is about developing people locally and giving them the opportunity and that is why 85 per cent of our seafarers today are Nigerians, from the highest to the lowest level.

“Mind you, we have 100 per cent capability. 5 per cent of foreigners are just to allow cross-fertilization of ideas by bringing some foreigners into our operations”, he said.

Speaking further, Ahmed said NSML was able to achieve the objective by bringing the training courses to Nigerians to manage the ships. 

“We said to ourselves that there was no need for us to be sending people abroad for training. Let us domesticate the training center as much as we can. Yes, it was a lot of investment but we did it and we were able to domesticate and get all the accreditations.”

He explained that by domesticating the training, over 70 per cent of the cost of training personnel abroad was saved.

“If you can cut all of the cost, you can then cut the training to at least 30 per cent. In our own case, what we have seen is that it has even created access for more people to train at once. For example, if you have a budget to train a certain number of people, if you have to send them abroad you can only do about five or so but if you domesticate the center you cut the cost by 30% and then, you can train a lot more people.

The NSML boss disclosed that “Currently we have eleven LNG vessels under its management and two LPG vessels, making a total of thirteen   under our management of course the goal is to expand.

“I am sure some of you remember that recently we took over the technical management of one of the most advanced LNG vessels in the world and these are new vessels that are cutting edge in terms of efficiency, decarbonization, and reduction in emissions.

“We are one of the few ship management companies that have those kinds of vessels under our management today. We are hopeful that we shall take a second one sometime next year. 

‘Most importantly we are equally diversifying our vessel, the type of vessels that we manage, which is why we have now moved into managing LPG vessels.

“With regard to the number of cadets that have been on our vessels, it’s over 200 in the last six to seven years we typically do between 40 and 50 cadets a year”, he stated.

Ahmed expressed enthusiasm over the company’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmed, tagged; Clean Water Initiative, saying he is very passionate about the programme which aims to rid Nigerian waters of plastics and wastes.

“When we came up with that, the Clean Waterway Initiative, it’s around really three elements. The first one is creating awareness with regards to the implication of continuous use and disposal habit of plastics.

“The immediate and long-term impact of improper disposal of plastics on our environment are serious of we do not create the awareness and inform the people of the consequences”,  he stated.