The Nigerian chapter of the Women in Maritime (WIMA Nigeria) has educated its members on taking advantage of the numerous opportunities in the maritime sector, especially liner trade and tramp shipping.
President of the association, Hajia Bola Muse told journalists that the training which is going to be a regular one is designed to enlighten WIMA members on how to grow their businesses.
A logistics expert, Mr. Edmond Martins lectured the women on the vantage position Nigeria occupies in terms of tramp trade, saying that Nigeria has a vantage position in Africa to promote the tramp trade.
He urged those who want to go into ship acquisition, to look into the viable opportunity for commercial tramp trade.
A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call. As opposed to freight liners, tramp ships trade on the spot market with no fixed schedule or itinerary or ports-of-call.
He also urged the women to take advantage of opportunities in Liner Trade as well as inland waterways transportation business across Nigeria littoral states.
Mr Martins also educated the women on the various types of containers used for shipping cargoes and their advantages.
Speaking earlier, Continental President of WIMA, Mrs Jean Chiazor Anishere commended WIMA Nigeria, saying that out of all WIMA chapters, the Nigerian chapter is the only one that has embarked on such a laudable training exercise.
Speaking, he said "I find it interesting with particular reference to the fact that there are various types of containers, some of us don't even know the usefulness of some of the containers"
"The most important thing is the type of Shipping and liner trade and the tramp trade that there are, with a particular reference that Nigeria has a vantage position in Africa to promote the tramp trade, this to me is a useful information for those of us who are in the Shipping industry, for those who want to go into ship acquisition, there is a viable opportunity for commercial base"
"There is a committee on training, and the creation of that committee, we hope that it's going to be an ongoing process that would be sustainable for WIMA Nigeria to be training its members regularly on issues affecting the Maritime industry and the various advantages and benefits of the industry " she said
Anishere promised to take the message to other chapters of WIMA across Africa for them to borrow initiative from the Nigerian chapter.
"I am not aware that there is any other chapter having a training of this strength in their country, I am going to report this to the continental body and ensure that other chapters emulate the beautiful idea of WIMA Nigeria in training their members on areas affecting the shipping industry and other aspects like aquaculture so that we can excell " she assured
President of WIMA Nigeria, Hajia Bola Muse urged more women to join the group in order to tap from the potentials in the maritime sector.
While speaking on the essence of the training session, she said "I want the members to enjoy the benefit of coming for the meeting, we don't want our meeting to look boring, we want every member to gain something and add value at the end of the day"
"Anytime we have our general meeting like this, we bring in a lot of instructors to come and train us in one aspect or the other on maritime"
"The maritime industry is a male-dominated sector, when we have more women around us, we would have a voice of our own in the sector", she stated.
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