Maritime stakeholders have renewed calls for Africa to take ownership of its economic, professional and regulatory future, urging governments to stop relying on external platforms that often marginalise the continent’s priorities.
The call was made on Wednesday at a high-level Mariners Forum Conversation held at the Waterside Centre, Lagos, where the Chairman of the Centre and former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, stressed the need for Africa-driven platforms to tackle long-standing challenges in public health, poverty, trade and professional development.
Iheanacho, who also chairs Integrated Oil and Gas, criticised the tendency to hold major policy conversations on African issues in distant global locations, arguing that such forums rarely reflect the continent’s realities. He maintained that Africa possesses the capacity to host its own discussions and translate them into enforceable policies.
According to him, meaningful progress will only come when dialogue moves beyond talk to action, insisting that domestic platforms are best positioned to drive sustainable change. He noted that African professionals had, for decades, been denied opportunities for open and robust debate on issues affecting their livelihoods, adding that emerging regional initiatives now provide space for frank engagement on maritime and economic matters.
In his presentation titled “The Integrated Future of Support for Professionals,” Iheanacho highlighted widening skills gaps in a global shipping industry being reshaped by digitalisation, automation and advanced connectivity. He explained that modern vessels are increasingly equipped with sensors, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) systems, paving the way for unmanned or remotely operated ships.
This transformation, he said, requires a new skill set from seafarers, including digital competence, data analysis, mastery of automated systems, environmental and regulatory knowledge, smart device operations, as well as strong communication and leadership abilities. He added that environmental protection now demands near-scientific understanding, with obsolete practices such as waste dumping and untreated ballast water discharge no longer acceptable under international regulations.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of OceanDeep Services Limited and President of Women in Maritime of West and Central Africa (WIMA) Nigeria, Mrs. Rollens Macfoy, called for the formation of a coordinated pressure group to address persistent weaknesses in Nigeria’s maritime training and certification framework.
Drawing from her experience training maritime professionals in Ghana, the United Kingdom and Germany, Macfoy lamented decades of inadequate support for Nigerian cadets. She said the failure to properly train and certify local seafarers has left Nigerian youths uncompetitive against foreign professionals who dominate high-paying maritime positions.
She cited instances where foreign captains earn between $8,000 and $10,000 monthly, while waiver payments remain as low as $1,000 annually, describing the imbalance as a reflection of systemic failure. She also blamed political leadership without technical maritime knowledge, the shortage of vessels for sea-time training and the dependence on costly foreign programmes.
Questioning why Nigerian cadets could not be placed on domestic Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), she urged regulators and maritime institutions to conduct facility audits, enforce standards and close existing gaps in order to build a skilled and globally competitive workforce. She warned that without sustained pressure, the country risks repeating “20 years of inaction” that derailed past initiatives, including abandoned sponsorship programmes once offered by private organisations.
On cabotage financing, the President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM), Capt. Tajudeen Alao, raised concerns over what he described as a deviation from the original intent of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF).
Tracing the origins of cabotage to the 1987 shipping regulation under Decree 10, Alao explained that the framework required 2–3 per cent of ship assessments to be set aside for indigenous ship acquisition, promotion and repayment support. He questioned when and why the purpose of the fund was altered, warning that unilateral policy changes undermine industry confidence and weaken capacity development.
He urged stakeholders to resist policy inconsistencies and insist on strict adherence to the fund’s founding objective of strengthening indigenous shipping, rather than financing unrelated initiatives. According to him, frequent shifts in policy direction without stakeholder consent are detrimental to the growth of the maritime sector.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the Waterside Centre, Dr. Hope Orivri, said the Centre is now fully positioned as a hub for the maritime community to engage on pressing industry issues, while also serving as a social and professional network for collaboration, motivation and inspiration.
She said the Centre aims to go beyond ceremonial engagements by regularly reviewing activities for measurable impact, with a focus on connecting the industry to coastal communities and ensuring their voices are heard. According to her, the goal is to positively impact shippers, shipowners, maritime lawyers, dockworkers, marine engineers, arbitrators, media practitioners and other industry players.
Dr. Orivri added that while Nigeria is often described as a rich maritime nation, stakeholders must move beyond rhetoric and demonstrate leadership through concrete results in key maritime areas.
The event attracted several master mariners and veteran marine engineers, including the President of the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES), Engr. Israel Obadan, and the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), Mr. Bolaji Sunmola, among others.
