The Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM) has lauded the Federal Government over the approval of US$454,000 for sea time training for the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for cadets on-board foreign going vessels.
Shipping Position Daily, recalls that Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi while disclosing this after a virtual Federal Executive Council meeting last week in Abuja, explained that the objectives of the consultancy training services include: building capacity of the Nigerian youths to take over the lucrative jobs available in the maritime sector, hitherto dominated by foreigners locally and export excess Nigerian seamen to fill available spaces globally.
But reacting to this, the president of NAMM, Captain Tajudeen Alao, urged the minister to also ensure that indigenous ship owners with berth space will have first option.
He also maintained that numerous unemployed graduates of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, should also be given preferential treatment on a 60-40 basis, adding that if all these are not considered, the fund is not defendable.
Also speaking, Captain Adewale Ishola who lauded the initiative by the federal government however urged the government to also training ships for cadets.
“On the allocation of money for the NSDP for NIMASA, you know it is attached to sea time, if the federal government realizes that these people need sea time I think we should do better than that, and acquire training ships for the seafarers and then the ability to also work with foreign ships that have cadets”
“It think it is a very good thing to have happened now, it has never happened before; allocating money for sea time, I think it is a better development. All these boys who have been idle for a long time will now have time for training and get employment” he concluded.
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