The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said that it will soon commence the third phase of the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside who made this known when the Management of Platform Communications led by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sylvanus Obasi paid him appreciation visit on Tuesday in Lagos stated that the NSDP 3 would be better implemented and would cover more ground than the previous ones.
While clarifying that NIMASA had no maritime school training seafarers, Peterside however informed that the programme was a national intervention by the Federal Government through the agency when it noticed that there was an acute dearth of seafarers adding that there were shipping firms in Nigeria but that they never trained any seafarer thereby making the country to lose so much for not having seafarers.
According to him,” NIMASA conceptualized a national intervention; got the approval of the relevant authorities and we started sending our people to the best of the training institutions around the globe to close that identified gap and you can see that it is beginning to yield fruit. Right now, we have become an active player in the seafaring profession and by extension the maritime profession in our country. It is beginning to key into cabotage regime in Nigeria. So, that is actually what has happened with the NSDP programme and to say to you, NIMASA is trying to repackage the NSDP programme and identify those gaps that were noticed in the implementation of the original programme.
“A new one will be called NSDP 3 and I believe it will be better implemented and that it will cover more ground than the original NSDP programme.
On whose responsibility is it to accredit maritime courses in Nigeria, the DG opined that all stakeholders acknowledged the fact that it was the role of NIMASA as a maritime administration in Nigeria to regulate the profession of seafaring wondering how an institution could regulate when such an institution don’t set standard of training.
“How can you regulate when you don’t have an eye on how those who will practice the profession are being groomed? It is just not possible and so there are issues between the roles of the National Board for Technical Education and the role of NIMASA but I believe whatever the issues are will be sorted out because I don’t think that is much of a problem”, he said.
Peterside therefore commended Platform Communications for providing an opportunity for people to know the potentials that were abound in the maritime sector through a programme it organized recently tagged,” A Day with Nigerian Maritime Students and Youth” saying that the agency was proud to partner with it assuring the management of the out of the agency’s continued support.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the Platform Communications, Mr. Sylvanus Obasi thanked the Management of NIMASA for identifying with the recent programme of the organization where it sought to bring together the Nigerian students studying maritime in different institutions to come face to face with the practitioners in the industry who would mentor the students in the chosen career in life.
While calling on the agency to work on the concerns raised by the students at the conference, Mr. Obasi pleaded with the NIMASA DG to continue to identify with the programme as it had now become a yearly event where ideas could be exchanged between the students and the practitioners in the industry.
Highlight of the visit was the presentation of gift to the Director-General by the benefiting students who were on the Platform Communications entourage.
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