… As Jamoh raises concern over rate of students’ failure in CoC examinations
… Agency surveys 489 vessels in 2021
In a bid to check incidences of forgery of Nigerian certificates and enhance the employment of the Nigerian seafarers in the maritime sector, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has reactivated the online seafarers Certificate of Competency verification platform.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh stated this while briefing maritime journalists on Friday at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.
Jamoh who was visibly worried by the rejection and discrimination of the Nigerian seafarers by ship owners both locally and internationally observed that the project has drastically reduced forgery of Nigerian certificates and enhanced the employment of the Nigerian seafarers in the Maritime sector.
According to him, “We have been experiencing rejection or discrimination against the Nigerian seafarers by ship owners both locally and internationally and the agency decided to introduce online Seafarers Certificate of Competency verification platform which allows you as a ship owner to access those candidates that passed our examinations directly from the comfort of their offices through their own computers.
“And with this, we intend to reduce and eliminate the forgery of our own certificates and improve the standard and confidence of our own certification.”
Speaking on examinations and certifications carried out by the agency in 2020, the Director General disclosed that a total of eight hundred and twenty-nine (829) officers cadre sat for the examinations out of which two hundred and sixty-four (264) officers forming a percentage of 32 percent passed while a total of five hundred and sixty-five (565) candidates forming a percentage of 68 percent failed .
He added that a total of two hundred and forty-six (246) certificates were revalidated in 2021.
“Gentlemen of the press, you can see a very serious and negative figures in terms of our students sitting for professional examination of different certificates that we are recording of which amounts to up to 68 percent failure.
“The agency is studying and liaising with various institutions to see how we can address this gap. There are so many factors attributed to this and we hope that before the middle of 2022, we will overcome those challenges.
“In 2020, officers examination, total number that sat for that examination was 610 and total number that passed was 251 forming a percentage of 41 percent while 359 failed amounting to 59 percent failure.
“The total certificates revalidated was 132. That means for 2021, we have 246, a considerable increase has been recorded.
“Then, for officers rating, total number that sat for the exams was 1,251; 926 passed representing 74 percent while 325 failed representing 26 percent failure.
“Examination for Rating for 2021, total number of students that sat for the exams was 1,327. That means a sharp increase as against the previous year of 2021 of 1,251. Total number of candidates passed was 990 forming also 74 percent passed. Total number of candidates failed was 337 with percentage of failure at 56 percent.”
While emphasizing that it was the responsibility of the agency to carry on flag state implementation to inspect and survey vessels in accordance with the safety requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act 2007, he pointed out that under that survey, NIMASA undertakes condition survey to ascertain the actual position and condition of Nigerian vessels.
Comparing the number of vessels surveyed under the flag registration of the previous years, Jamoh informed that the agency surveyed 489 vessels which is 43.6 percent higher than the total number of condition survey carried out in 2020.
“In 2020, we surveyed only 276 while in 2021, we surveyed 489. So, this is one of the indices that will show and indicate maritime administration’s seriousness in terms of flag state survey. We recorded 43.6 percent in 2021 as an increase when compared with 2020 even with the global pandemic issues.
“For the port state control, 229 foreign vessels boarded to ensure that each vessel maintained safety, pollution standard while in our ports and waters.
“For the port state control implementation comparing the number of vessels boarded relative to the previous year, it can be observed that 2021 figure as recorded was 673 vessels which is 24.2 percent higher than the total number of inspections carried out in 2020 of 510 vessels”, he added.
Photo: Dr. Bashir Jamoh, Director General, NIMASA.
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