Determined to ensure proper training of Nigerian cadets, the immediate past president of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN); Engineer Greg Ogbeifun, has called for the establishment of Merchant Navy Training Board that will be domiciled with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
Ogbeifun, who said this, last week in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos also said that it is the board that will drive the certification of cadets to ensure that they are properly trained.
He maintained that the board should be saddled with the responsibility of keeping accurate record of all the cadets starting from when they were admitted into school till graduation for proper monitoring.
“In other climes, we have organizations like that Merchant Navy Training Board; it is a board that helps to drive the training of cadets up to their ultimate certification in COC. We need to have that unit domiciled somewhere maybe in NIMASA to show that say for example, Mr. A or cadet A started on this day finished on so day and he is going to the ship and you monitor that progress. Because if you ask NIMASA now on the number of cadets you sent out so far, can you say exactly where each of them is now in the process of qualification, it may be difficult? So I think it is something that needs to be looked at very well”, he stressed.
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