Abdul-Kadir K. Ahmed is the MD/CEO of NLNG Ship Management Ltd (NSML), the maritime services subsidiary of NLNG. In this recent chat with maritime journalists, he provides insights into various aspects of the company’s operations and the maritime industry in Nigeria. He discussed the number of Nigerian seafarers working onboard their vessels, their commitment to Nigeria localisation, and efforts to support cadet training.
In terms of localisation, what is the number of Nigerian seafarers you have working onboard your vessels as well as your provision of sea time for cadets of maritime institutions in the country?
The number of seafarers we have is related to the number of vessels we have under management. There is a maximum number of seafarers per vessel and therefore we always ensure that we have the seafarers and book subject to a certain buffer relating to employability, which is the number of vessels we have under our management. We have approximately 650 seafarers, but we are continuing to diversify and grow the business. We started as purely managing and providing seafarers to the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) LNG fleet. But over the years, we have expanded that into managing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) vessels as well.
We are currently supervising the construction of a new LPG vessel for a third party, a Nigerian entity in South Korea and the expectation and hope is that the vessel will also come under our management and that will also provide opportunities to engage and employ seafarers that will run those vessels. We are engaging with various entities including Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) with regards to the acquisition of vessels. The more we expand that side of our business in terms of vessels under our management, the more opportunities there would be for Nigerian seafarers to manage those vessels. We equally, as corporate citizens have a Nigerianization objective which we have met, which is ensuring that at every time we have a full complement of Nigerians to manage and run our vessels. Because we are international, there will be a need for a bit of cross-fertilisation of ideas and therefore we will always have foreign seafarers, but at every time within our books, we will always have 85 percent of our seafarers being Nigerian. We met that in 2022 and we are continuing to do that and I am sure you have also heard that in March last year, the LPG vessel under our management achieved 100 percent Nigerianization on our coastal waters. That is something we are targeting and we will continue to review that. At every point in time we maintain a minimum of about between 50 and 60 cadets onboard our vessels. Typically we have partnerships to support the cadets to get their CoC and ensure they are ready for the market. We also provide a pool of cadets and seafarers for our own use. But of course, we can’t absolve everybody, it all depends on the number of vessels. For us, it is giving them the required training so they can build a career in the global shipping and maritime industry.
Shipping and maritime is a global industry, those certification and skill sets are exactly the same applicable everywhere in the world and our youths with their large population. India and Philippines export seafarers, so giving them the skill set tool that they can work anywhere in the world is really the intent and I know within some of the cadets that have passed through us, quite a few are working internationally at the moment and that is the objective, to create that avenue for youths to have the right skills that are applicable anywhere in the world.
When will the construction of the LPG vessel for Korea be completed and brought to service to have Nigerians onboard?
The new LPG vessel is not our vessel. We are effecting the design and supervising the construction. The announcement of when depends on the owners, but it is progressing very well and we believe very soon it will be brought into service. That is something we will like to highlight because it’s a unique skill, the design and construction supervisor of a complex vessel like an LPG or LNG is a competence we are very proud of and it really touches on the purpose of the creation of NSML as an entity, which is domesticating those skills.
Prior to us, if you are going to do that, you go outside and get external foreign companies to do that for you, but now we can do this. We did it with 100 percent Nigerian staff.
Nigeria still struggles with the acceptance of its Certificate of Competence (CoC) for seafarers internationally, why is this so?
Unfortunately, it’s an ongoing activity with the acceptance of the CoC and I know the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is doing a lot with regards to ensuring the CoCs are accepted internationally. The key element boils down to the comfort that we are able to provide to other regulatory bodies internationally about the standards and a lot of money has been invested in the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron. They have done a lot in upgrading the academy, which is a step in the right direction and I know the NIMASA Director General is also very passionate about pushing that. For us in NSML, we have always been available and we will continue to support NIMASA with regards to pushing that, because it also works in our favour. If the Nigerian CoCs are accepted internationally, it makes life easier for our seafarers to want to renew their CoCs. It also creates a large pool of resources. But there are no shortcuts to it and that is one thing I will always make very clear. Acceptance of CoCs looks bilateral, but there are some fundamentals towards the bilateral element, which is the other party must be comfortable with the quality of the CoCs at the level that is sustainable. The one way we can ensure that is they want to be sure that the processes of assuring quality is standardised and assured by everybody and that is that work that is currently ongoing and I am absolutely confident that in a very short while, that would be achieved. We will continue to support that because it’s in line with our vision and I will also tend to emphasise that supporting the growth and development of the Nigerian maritime industry starts from the fundamentals of building capacity and ensuring competence in capacity.
Does NSML training partnership with the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron still exist?
The relationship between NSML and MAN Oron is an ongoing relationship. The purpose of the creation of NMSL was to domesticate shipping and maritime skill sets locally and for you to do that, it means you have to develop competence and capacity within Nigeria. That was the essence of our relationship with MAN Oron. We supported them in the past in terms of curriculum, we have done an assessment and overview of what they need to do, we have done gap analysis, we have supported them on that in terms of where they were and where they needed to be. We will continue to support them. A lot has been done in MAN Oron in terms of upgrading the facility because that is one critical area. Technology is changing, the competence required is equally evolving. With knowledge and competence you cannot be static because everything around you is evolving. That is the challenge of seafarers training and development, not just in Nigeria, but globally. MAN wasn’t just simply around the curriculum, which we supported them and they have also developed, but was also about the facility. From our perspective from what we see, there have been a lot of investments in upgrading the facility as well as upgrading and making the curriculum relevant. NMSL as part of stakeholders in the industry are happy to continue to support in that respect. If MAN is able to achieve its objective, it benefits us as stakeholders because the people make the maritime industry what it is.
How many vessels are currently under the management of NSML and what are your catchment areas in the global market?
We have 12 vessels under management. 11 LNG vessels and one LPG vessel currently. Expectations in line with our growth and diversification objective is to grow the number. We started out as an LNG vessels manager, we have now expanded into bringing LPG, we are hopeful that we will expand both the LPG fleet as well as move into oil tankers and products so that we cover the whole gamut of energy vessels under our management. We are growing that side of the business slowly, it is a deliberate growth so we don’t just expand beyond capacity, so it is sustainable to build and diversify our duties about sustainability. Our vessels go all over the world. We have vessels that are loading cargoes in North America, delivering them to Europe, we have vessels loading cargoes in Nigeria and delivering them to Europe, South Africa and the Far East – Japan, China, South Korea, Indian subcontinent, our vessels go everywhere. The one area our vessels don’t go is Russia. The only way you can have a vessel that is able to trade in all of these areas boils down into the comfort that those areas would have vis-a-vis your operations and that is where competence and flag assurance come into be, because you need to have a flag and capacity of the crew that is assured and people can vouch for. That is why it is essential that we create and align ourselves to the global standards. We can have a Nigerian standard, but we should make sure it is not below the global standard.
Your vessels are not registered with the Nigerian flag, why is this so?
The ship registry issues, the last time we spoke, NLNG vessels are registered under a different flag for a number of factors. One, of course the registry, we have the international ocean going and there has to be that level of comfort and assurance of the registry and acceptance of the registry internationally for a Nigerian flagged vessel to operate and trade openly.
It is a work that is ongoing as well and we are participating at NSML and NLNG level, engaging with NIMASA. We are part of that committee that has been set up to review what needs to be done so that the Nigerian flag and registry get to that level of international acceptance and for us it is a win-win situation once that is achieved. It is an ongoing discussion, we are really aligned with the desire and objectives of NIMASA to have that and we will continue to support that, because we believe if we can achieve that, it would definitely support the development of the Nigerian maritime sector.
What is your take on the creation of the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry to address issues in the maritime sector?
One consistent message has been the importance of the Marine and Blue economy to national development and the need for a focus ministry to handle that. For us, waking up one morning to hear that has been created, it was excellent news and fully supported. It is in line with the aspiration of every maritime industry professional, because now you have a ministry that is fully focused on realising the potentials of the blue economy. The Blue economy goes beyond just shipping and marine, it is a whole gamut of activities that relates to our ocean resources. Of course, shipping and marine sound like the obvious, the next one is fishing, which we know, but there is so much that can come out of the blue economy. The essence of the blue economy is how do you sustainably develop and explore those resources to create value and economic development within an economy? In Nigeria, with our population, all hands need to be on deck to ensure that we create avenues for sustainable economic development and the blue economy is one veritable source of that. Not just simply from a revenue point of view, but most importantly from an employment point of view. Our teeming youths need to be given the avenue to be gainfully-employed and the blue economy is one area that, if fully exploited, will achieve that at a very fast rate. NSML has focused on training and development of seafarers, it’s an avenue. You can imagine if you can replicate a thousand NSML, what that will mean? and that is possible. Not just simply shipping and logistics from the point of view of oil and gas, it could be also from fishing, offshore power, offshore cabling, and renewable energy – there is so much that can come out of the blue economy. Another area is the support network, the full ecosystem of repairs, equipment, and all those gamut of activities, the multiplier effect is tremendous. For us at NSML, the creation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy is an absolute step in the right direction. I have always said the key element is to create that enabling environment that will ensure the triple goal of safety, reliability and creating sustainable efficiency. That enabling environment of creating a competitive industry is something that the creation of the ministry of Marine and Blue Economy will address and it is something we are absolutely looking forward to its full realisation and I am sure there will be that focus now to really drive the change that will enable that to happen.
Stakeholders are calling for clarity of roles and definition of jurisdiction, so there won’t be a clash of interest and then jeopardise the success of the blue economy ministry. What are your expectations?
We now have a ministry purely focused on the blue economy. Yes, there will be various agencies and historically, there may have been slight conflict and disagreement in terms of who is responsible for what role. Having the ministry now allows that clarity to be visible. We will now know who is responsible for what, who are the regulators and operators and what are their roles, because there has to be that demarcation. It is easy to say one entity can do everything, but can’t do everything effectively. The essence of bringing everybody under one roof is to provide that clarity and the creation of the blue economy ministry will significantly aids towards that. The blue economy is going to be driven by the private sector, the attainment of the goals and objectives of the blue economy and every benefit we see coming out of that is going to be driven by the private sector. If that is the case, the question should be, what is the role of the government? In this instance, the role of government is around regulations and creating the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive. Within the context of the blue economy, the regulation has to focus on ensuring we create a safe industry. So safety is absolutely critical in shipping and marine. Every single one of us as operators in the industry have that responsibility of ensuring safety, but the government and the regulatory agencies have that primary responsibility of ensuring and creating the necessary regulations to drive safety. Second element is efficiency and competitiveness. We want to create a competitive industry because it is only by this we will ensure that people coming and the best are able to thrive and grow in that sector. The expectation is strengthening regulations, oversight and creating the enabling environment for the private sector to take the lead in the development of that sector. What you now have is a ministry that can be fully focused on having that, creating the enabling environment so that private sector and capital can come into that industry and push the development and the sustainable expectation of the blue economy.
Give us an overview of the improvement of security on our waterways; given the fact that your vessels operate in the eastern part of the country, where insecurity is perceived to be high?
The deep blue project of NIMASA has been excellent. The removal of Nigeria from the high risk area of piracy is the evidence of its success. Does that mean we are never going to have an incident? There is nowhere in the world where you can’t have an incident. It is simply around having the resources and framework to ensure you limit the number and you are able to respond effectively and efficiently and that is what the deep blue initiative is all about. We have seen the impact of that. It is highly commendable, but the challenge going forward is sustainability. The creation of the marine and blue economy ministry’s focus on security will transcend into sustainability. Because what we now have is a ministry that is purely focused on that sector and security is a critical aspect of we really are going to make a success and achieve what we want as regards to the blue economy. We have seen the impact and significant reduction in piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea and we have seen also the impact in the removal of Nigeria and Gulf of Guinea as high risk area due to that and that has transcended into greater efficiency in terms of our operations and we are hopeful the initiative will be sustained going forward so we will continue to reap the benefit of it.
