By Udeme Clement
The Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Temisan Omatseye, says developing and transition economies have the ports handling 90 per cent of the world’s trade in the maritime industry.

He spoke on the sideline of a sensitisation workshop on the ‘Seafarers Identity Documents (SID) Convention 185, organised by the agency, at Maritime resource centre in Lagos .

He said, “majority of the world’s 1.2million seafarers come from developing and transition countries, therefore the infrastructure required by Convention 185 must be implemented in these economies. This would provide a unique inter-operable system, such that SID issued by one member state would be verified at any border that the seafarer crosses in the conduct of his profession.”

He said, “at present, we are embarking on massive capacity building to ensure that many Nigerians are trained to become professional seafarers with competence to operate beyond the borders of this country. Aside from capacity building within Lagos , we are also training Nigerians in different states to ensure efficiency in the sector.”

His assertion, “Convention 185 was ratified by Nigerian government in December 2003. To ensure immediate domestication, NIMASA in line with its statutory responsibility of establishing the procedure for the implementation of the Conventions of the ILO, to which Nigeria is a party on maritime labour commissioned the SID equipment in 2007, in the four zonal offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Eket  and Warri.

ILO and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are carrying out extensive work to enhance maritime security globally and to protect ships and ports against potential threat posed by international terrorism and other illicit act”.