By Babatunde Omoju

THAT the Federal Government holds the controlling equity in the channel management companies and that it also chairs their boards of directors through the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, are by no means accidental.

Channel dredging and channel management are strategic port operations with security implications; every serious maritime nation takes control of them. The corollary to this is that government must make conscious efforts  to continually build and increase local capacity in channel management not only to effectively be in charge of the companies, but to also consolidate the gains of port privatisation in the area of empowering Nigerians with requisite skills.

Successful channel management requires skills in both offshore and onshore operations. Full complement of crews – deck and engine – are needed on-board the trailing suction hopper dredgers, TSHDs, and other specialised vessels/equipment dedicated to channel dredging.

These are complemented by a good number of shore-based personnel of different vocations including but not limited to meteorologists, hydrographers, environmentalists, oceanographers, ICT personnel, laboratory technologists, workshop engineers, machinists and fabricators; engineering/marine superintendents; and human resource personnel, some of whose job schedules require them to shuttle between the land and shore.

Since it is the foreign joint venture partners that possess the technical wherewithal to drive the operation of the channel management companies, transferring their skills to Nigerians is imperative for building and increasing local capabilities.

In 2004, the NPA management in partnership with the private sector established the Lagos Channel Management Company, LCM, and the Bonny Channel Company, BCC. BCC was established to create and maintain a safe navigational passage for all marine users to and in the Eastern Ports of Bonny Island, Onne, Okrika, and Port-Harcourt while LCM is saddled with the responsibility of dredging and maintenance of Lagos channels for the safe movement of vessels.

What the BCC has so far done in regard to capacity training is quite inspiring. According to the company, the deployment of a team of over one hundred young Nigerians amongst their members of staff for training in Antwerp & London  recently  is to ensure that the company meets local content requirement in terms of skilled manpower.

Apart from their in-house staff, the BCC has since 2011 directly conducted or sponsored local and international trainings for officers of the NPA with whom their staff have constant interface. This is to build synergy between the NPA and the BCC staff towards seamless operation. The BCC has also pledged to support the NPA to establish the Port Training Institute with the provision of 50 per cent of the fund required for the purchase and installation of the simulator for the centre.

On its part, LCM appears to have concentrated more on hands-on training of cadets on-board its dredging vessels and in workshops and fabrication yards in its domain in line with the International Maritime Organisation, IMO, Standards of Training Certification and Watch-keeping, STCW, ’95 and 2010.

This comes as no surprise as the LCM operates in the Lagos Pilotage District which is host to Nigeria’s oldest and most equipped ports in terms of training facilities. This LCM’s approach has to a large extent assisted cadets from Nigeria’s premier maritime training school, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, MAN, Oron as well as other young Nigerians who attended maritime schools overseas, to acquire the rare but much needed sea time experience which is prerequisite to their obtaining Certificate of Competency, CoC, that will qualify them internationally for seafaring, whilst at the same time boost youth unemployment in the maritime sector, albeit marginally. Put another way, the LCM is helping Nigeria build her stock of seafarers needed for the maritime sector to attain its full potentials.

In its efforts to promote training, the International Association of Dredging Companies recently held a training workshop in Singapore which had in attendance top officials from the NPA and various ports and channel managers from across the world. The goal of the training was to provide decision- makers of port management and public authorities with practical knowledge in order to create a better understanding of the requirements of the contracting parties of dredging and reclamation projects.

Notwithstanding the achievements recorded by these channel companies in training Nigerians, there is still much needed to increase local training for capacity building in channel management. First  is Nigeria’s port privatisation is a fait accompli. Since 2006, the ports have been set on a path of growth trajectory as investments in existing port infrastructure have risen progressively alongside increased prospects of green ports development, notably the Lekki, Badagry, Ibom and Bonny deep seaports.

Once these ports take off, they will certainly require channel management services, and the odds are that they will come under the domain of the two existing channel management companies instead of the NPA contracting a completely new joint venture partner to manage them.

This is because taking on a new joint venture partner will cost government more in terms of funding and other responsibilities, which government is likely avoid, given the present state of the economy.

The existing channel management companies will have to expand their capacity which means more Nigerians will be employed and trained in ship and shore operations. This will spur the growth of third party vendor companies, suppliers and consultants who have to be trained along the channel company employees to work together in synergy.

Given the status of the BCC and LCM as legal duopolies, and the fact that the companies operate in a non-contestable market with absolutely no external competition to their services, it is safe to assume that they have the clout – financial, political, and otherwise – to develop through training, local capacity to meet present and future needs in channel management in Nigeria. The starting point is for the companies to begin to patronise maritime training and allied institutions at home if they have not been doing so, and to increase their patronage of the institutions if they already have.

By executing training Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with institutions like the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron; the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), Nigerian Navy College of Engineering, and universities and polytechnics offering specialised courses in dredging and channel management amongst others, the channel companies are able to train not a few of their own staff, their vendors and contractors, and their NPA partners.

Though it is a sad reality that many of these training institutes, colleges and universities hardly ever have adequate funding to procure the facilities/equipment (like a training vessel for instance) to conduct proper trainings, support from the channel management companies will go a long way towards alleviating the institutions’ needs.