The Nigerian maritime environment is expansive and rich in natural resources uncommon in other parts of the word. Harnessing these endowments to national development and economic growth seems to be the challenge that government and maritime experts continue to grapple with for decades.

Undaunted, the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors, AMES,  pooled resources together to host the Maritime Technical Summit, MTS,  towards identifying the issues and challenges therefrom seek ways and means of addressing them in order to reposition the maritime industry to meet modern demands of trade, port administration, capacity building and training needs.

President of AMES, Engr. Charles Uwadia, while welcoming delegates to the Summit stated that the association consist of marine engineers with first class certificates of competency (foreign going) who have served as chief engineers, class surveyors, superintendents in ship repair/ship building yards.

Engineer Uwadia reiterated that AMES has as members, technical professionals trained in maritime operations. Great maritime nations of the world, he said, “have continued to use our services in successful shipyards, maritime safety agencies, implementation of safety policies, human capacity development/trainings.

Identifying the challenges, the AMES helmsman declared “the failure in the maritime sector is due to lack of in-dept technical inputs in maritime policies and their implementation in line with international best practices/realities. The decline in standards, quality and profitability of the ships of Nigeria flag can be traced to their poor technical standards occasioned by owners’ reluctance to comply with national and international standards/regulations”.

Among those who presented papers were,  engr, Emmanuel Ilori, Engr, Olu Akinsoji, Engr. George Agbajoh and engr.Kuzi Onyibe.

The Minister of transportation, honourable Rotimi Amaechi was the chief moderator all through the presentations. The discussions were open, free and unhindered as the minister sought clarifications on issues raised by the presenters in the course of their presentations.