The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Multimix Academy, Dr. Obiora Madu, has charged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to work more on giving seafarers sea time experience instead of just training them.
Dr. Madu who spoke to Shipping Position Daily in Lagos on Tuesday, said it is not all about churning out seafarers without sea time experience.
He also said that in the quest of diversifying economy, more attention should be giving to the maritime industry especially in the area of sea time experience for seafarers.
“Well I guess it is actually not about churning out seafarers, the point is that once they don’t have that sea time experience, obviously they are going to remain unemployed. So, I think NIMASA’s effort will be in the direction of getting all the people who are already out of school to have sea experience”.
According to him, the nation’s seafarers lack the competency to be employed as they do not have sea time experience, even as he added that with the experience, they can be employed anywhere around the world.
“Talking about absorbing the cadets, where is the nation’s shipping industry and of course do they have the capacity in terms of the sea experience to be employed. That is what I think should be looked into. Because if they complete their qualifications by earning experience then, their employment opportunity will be bigger because it means it is not only in the Nigerian maritime industry they can also get jobs elsewhere”
Dr. Madu also advised the government to support individuals to invest in the area of having a national carrier, even as he maintained that the government should provide enabling business environment for individuals to thrive in that sector.
“Talking about the national carrier, I think that nation should support companies that are in that industry. I know we have ship owners associations I think the government should support them. We are not ready for all that we are talking about national fleet on the waters and also on the air. So I don’t think that is the issue the issue should be for government to provide enabling business environments and support individuals. As far as I am concerned support the individuals’ members of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria who have the experience”, he concluded.
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