- Nigeria to Export Seafarers Soon
The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said that the country will soon begin to sponsor seafarers to work on foreign-going vessels through sea-time training for maritime graduates.
Peterside said this in Port Harcourt while on an assessment tour of maritime facilities with members of the Board of NIMASA.
He said NIMASA was set to facilitate sea-time training for graduates under the National Seafarers Development Programme for training at home and abroad.
According to him, about 2,900 graduates of the NSDP will be assisted to get trained on ships for their mandatory sea time.
He said NIMASA had concluded arrangements for the first batch to be sponsored to expand their chances of job placement, adding that their certificates of maritime training would be worthless without the sea-time training.
Peterside said, ‘’If you hold a certificate from any maritime training institution anywhere in the world without the sea-time training and requisite certificate of competency, such certificate becomes a worthless piece of document.
‘’We have made adequate provision for the sea-time training in our 2017 budget proposal. Many people acquired degrees in Philippines, Malaysia, Norway and other countries. The challenge all along has been lack of sea-time training. We have initiated the process. Any moment from now, we will be sending the first batch to go for the training.
‘’We are working to ensure that 2,900 youths get the sea-time training and their CoC so that they can work onboard foreign-going vessels.’’
He added, ‘’We want to be like the Philippines, who earn more from exporting seafarers. The average seafarer earns $1,000 daily. In a month, they earn an average of $30,000. I don’t earn up to that.”
