By Vivian Nwokedi
Managing Director of Mamba Underwater Diving Services Nigeria Limited, Mr Mike Baaba has called on Nigerians to explore opportunities in underwater business in the nations maritime industry.

Speaking at the 2011 Ships and Ports First Quarter Career Guide, organised by Ships and Ports Communication Company, Mike said that underwater diving business in Nigeria is lucrative.

Babaa whose paper was titled “How to do underwater business in Nigeria”, lamented the domianace of maritime business in Nigeria by foreign companies and as a result, Nigerians who are presently practising the trade in the country are not well remunerated.

He said “ Diving is lucrative, I will not deceive you. If you know what you are doing you will enjoy it. The Whites have been using us to work in our waters but thank God we have been able to wake up and we have tried to form a Nigerian association of professional divers which is already in place and before this political tenure ends I believe it will be passed into law so that we can have a base”.

Continuing he said “The head office is in Warri because we have a situation where you work for the white man they pay peanuts, for instance while they are paying their own people 2000 dollars a day they pay Nigerians N500 naira”

Eucharia Okoli who represented Chief Executive Officer of Ships and Ports Communication Company, Mr Bolaji Akinola told the participants that the career guide is one of her company’s initiative aimed at exposing Nigerians to the enormous opportunities in the nation’s maritime sector and how they can take advantage of these opportunities.

She stated that apart from the Ships and Ports Quarterly Career Guide the company organises an annual event tagged Annual Shipping Career Summit where all the careers in the maritime industry are discussed to further boost entrance of Nigerians into the maritime sector.

Baaba disclosed that indigenous operators have not been able to exploit all the aspects of underwater business in Nigaria.

He called on government to create an enabling law that will engender the participation of indigenous operators in the trade.