The capacity building initiative of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) through the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) has again received another boost as 59 of the beneficiaries have graduated from the Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom.
This brings the number of graduates of the scheme at the various institutions in United Kingdom, Egypt, Romania and Philippines to 1,343.
At the latest graduation ceremony which held in the United Kingdom recently, four of the students graduated with a 1st Class, while 36 had 2nd Class (Division 1) degrees and others graduated with various other grades.
Speaking at the event, the Director General of the NIMASA; Dr. Dakuku Peterside expressed delight at the performance of the students and stated that they are the future of the Nigerian maritime industry, even as he assured them that plans are on top gear to ensure they do their mandatory sea time training, so that they can be qualified seafarers.
The DG who was represented by the agency’s Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services; Mr. Ahmed Gambo enjoined the graduates to continue to be good ambassadors of Nigeria and told them that very soon they will be expected back home to take over the Nigerian maritime space.
“Let me congratulate you on this great feat of your graduation from this prestigious University. On our part as a government, we are committed to capacity building initiatives as it remains the only means the maritime industry can survive and compete favourably with its counterparts globally; we will ensure you all go through the mandatory sea time training, so that you can become better experts and professionals in the maritime sector both in Nigeria and internationally”, Dr. Peterside said.
Meanwhile, two outstanding NSDP Cadets who had earlier graduated from the same University and thereafter obtained scholarships based on their performance from the University to pursue their Doctorate programme were also presented to the Nigerian delegation.
It may be recalled that as part of the commitment of the Executive Management of NIMASA to ensure that the NSDP programme is fully optimized, it has entered into partnership with various maritime institutions abroad to provide sea time training opportunities to the NSDP cadets to enable them qualify fully as seafarers.
Discussion about this post