By Babatunde Aremu
A Maritime expert, Capt. Konni Duniya has said that there will be a shortfall of 96,000 Seafarers by 2026 in Nigeria’s Maritime sector even as others say Nigeria should float a National Carrier and make it compulsory for public and private ship owners to employ qualified Nigerian Seafarers.
This is coming against the background that foreign Seafarers currently handle jobs on board vessels in Nigeria because their Nigerian counterparts have no seatime experience despite the fact that Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA in the past few years sent some Nigerians to various higher institutions abroad to study on scholarship.
In a paper presention at 2024 Lecture Series of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron, titled: “Addressing Human and Institutional Capacity Development in Nigeria’s Maritime Sector Through Stakeholders Partnership, she expressed concern that the country will suffer huge shortage of adequate and competent seafarers in the coming years if the manpower gap created as a result of war, retirement and disruptions in the sector Is not urgently addressed.
She blamed the current situation on domination of Nigeria’s Maritime sector by seafarers of foreign countries, issuance of fraudulent Certificate of Competency CoC, lack of database to validate cadet’s education, training and experience..
She also identified non-compliance with STCW Convention of International Maritime Organization as one of the major factors and limitations causing low employment opportunities for Nigerian seafarers.
Duniya enjoined the Federal government to organise frequent training for existing seafarers and develop capacity building programs for incoming ones with the use of emerging trends and technologies
“Nigeria has been on the IMO STCW white list since 2019 however Nigerian seaferers are yet to benefit from this achievement due to the inability of Nigeria to sign MOU with the most respected countries like UK, Australia and most of Europe.
“Signing MOU with such countries will help strengthen our image as a serious maritime nation and open doors for employment of Nigerian seafarers globally.
“Nigeria is the only country with unemployed seafarers in the world despite the cabotage law which seems to have been poorly implemented and shortage of seafarers globally.
“There needs to be proper housekeeping in NIMASA to combat issues of seatime training and licence forgery through the use of block chain and cloud computing, She declared
Duniya spoke about the need for Nigeria to market her seafarers to the global market alongside the signing of MOU with countries in line with what Ghana, South Africa and other countries are doing.
She lamented that Nigeria seafarers are left to their fate battling poor wages , welfare and living conditions within Nigerian waters while alternatively accepting lower positions outside Nigerian waters which does not give room for consistent career growth.
While acknowledging the fact that Maritime Academy of Nigeria is currently positioned to compete globally in terms of standards, she urged FG to provide the enabling environment for the school to achieve the aims and objectives of its establishment as it relates to Seafarers training and licence issuing.
Stakeholders have also been advised to encourage female seafarers through Training, capacity building and employment Generation just like their male counterparts so as to achieve the desired growth in Nigeria’s Marine and blue economy industry.
Recall that over the years NIMASA sent many Nigerians abroad to study various aspects of maritime including; Seafarers but many have since graduated and returned home without jobs.
It was gathered that some of the graduates who benefitted from the programme now loiter around Ikorodu and Liverpool, terminals seeking to assist boat and ferry operators.
Mr. Eric Umezurike, Managing Director First Rit Nigeria Limited, posited that after graduation of the students sponsored by NIMASA under the special scholarship programme the onus lies on the agency to send them for seatime training.
He noted that Nigeria Seafarers should not be languishing without jobs while their foreign counterparts enjoy better job placement and welfare.
Umezurike who is a Freight Forwarder, noted that the best way out of the present quargmire is for FG to establish a national carrier based on Public, Private Partnership so that maritime student graduates can be depoyed after graduation to have seatime experience.
He also called on NIMASA stop sending ‘select’ students abroad to study on scholarship when there are maritime institutions in the country.
Another respondent Mr. Martial Ejiofor said that government through NIMASA should commence disbursement of $350,000 Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund so as to enhance development of indigenous shipping in the country.
He stated that in a country where the vessels operating within the coastal waters are owned by foreigners, it is pertinent that employment of Seafarers will be based on bias especially when the locals are not qualified.