Worried about the much-talked-about dearth of qualified seafarers, the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) is planning to hold a retreat with first generation master mariners, marine engineers and other professionals in sea faring on how to ensure that the dwindling trend is reversed.
This piece of good news was broken recently by a frontline marine engineer and chairman, planning committee of the just-concluded NIMAREX 2011 exhibition in Lagos, Engr Greg Ogbeifun.
Worried about the much-talked-about dearth of qualified seafarers, the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) is planning to hold a retreat with first generation master mariners, marine engineers and other professionals in sea faring on how to ensure that the dwindling trend is reversed.
This piece of good news was broken recently by a frontline marine engineer and chairman, planning committee of the just-concluded NIMAREX 2011 exhibition in Lagos, Engr Greg Ogbeifun.
Ogbeifun told Shipping Position Weekly that “one of the challenges in the industry right now is the dearth of skilled and professionally qualified mariners, we have heard it from the maritime institutions that we don’t have enough skilled lecturers, ship owners are complaining that they don’t have appropriate mariners to guide their ships, maintenance yards are complaining that they don’t have people to work in the yards…..”.
He attributed the problem to the liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) by the military in 1995, but disclosed that majority of the old brigade seafarers are actually not tired and that they can be used to assist in the training of young seafarers.
He disclosed that NIMAREX is planning to hold a retreat with the old professionals so as to find a common ground to assist and ensure that new and qualified seafarers spring up.
“Some of us are getting old, some of us are retired but not all of us are tired, even those who are tired are still intellectually sound, some of us will be willing to go to the maritime academy Oron for instance and donate one day a month as I have been advocating”, he stressed.
(Please, go to pages 6 and 7 for full interview)
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