The former Executive Secretary, Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarding, Mr Ademola Iriyemi has called on the Federal Government to provide adequate funds for maritime institutions to produce more manpower.
He made the call last week Friday in Lagos. He said that government should be thinking of the future of the industry, especially the need to train the young cadets to fill the vacuum of aging mariners.
The former Executive Secretary, Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarding, Mr Ademola Iriyemi has called on the Federal Government to provide adequate funds for maritime institutions to produce more manpower.
He made the call last week Friday in Lagos. He said that government should be thinking of the future of the industry, especially the need to train the young cadets to fill the vacuum of aging mariners.
The maritime expert said that if adequate funds were provided by government for maritime education, there would not be any fear of succession between the aging mariners and the young cadets.
Irinyemi said the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) should sustain its National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).
He said the NSDP would assist significantly in bridging the gap created by ageing master mariners in the country.
Speaking in the same vein, Eng. Olu Akinsoji, a former Sole Administrator, Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Akwa Ibom State, said that inadequate attention to maritime training had truncated the development of the sector.
Akinsoji told NAN that “we truncated our steady development in the maritime industry when we jettisoned and trivialised training policy’’.
According to him, the dearth of maritime manpower is only worrisome to those who know and understand the consequences in terms of socio-economic losses and barriers to general development of the industry.
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