The Director General of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has given indications that the agency has concluded plans for the mandatory Sea time for the Nigerian Seafarers Development programme (NSDP) graduates in its 2017 budget proposals, meaning that it will be qualifying hundreds of the candidates for the international labour market soon.
Leading maritime nations that export seafarers include, Philippine, Malaysia, India, United Kingdom, Greece among others.
Explaining more during the zonal tour of the Agency’s Eastern zonal office by the NIMASA Governing Board, the Director General noted that these capacity building initiatives is geared towards ensuring that in the nearest future the country would be able to export seafarers and have more Nigerians on Ocean going vessels.
He said countries like India and The Philippines enhance their GDP from the activities of the human elements of the maritime sector and that Nigeria should be able to tap into this opportunity for economic advancement.
While maintaining that the Agency’s commitment towards building capacity for the maritime sector thereby ensuring that Seafarers and Dockworkers get the best of training across the globe, Peterside stressed that NIMASA is in the process of fortifying the NSDP programme in order for Nigeria to begin to export Seafarers and earn the much needed foreign exchange. He added that the challenge had always been the mandatory sea time training which the Agency is tackling headlong.
He said “we have made adequate provision for sea time training in our 2017 budget proposal. About 2500 graduates of the NSDP programme will be assisted to get trained on Sea going Vessels for their mandatory sea time and we have concluded arrangements for the first batch to be sponsored in order to expand their chances of job placement on board ocean going vessels. With this, our youths will obtain the Certificate of Competency (CoC) which places an opportunity to earn in dollars along with their contemporaries internationally”.
NIMASA boss further said that the Agency is about to begin the process of training about 800 Dockworkers that will deepen service delivery in the economy.
