Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has assured that graduated beneficiaries of the Nigerian Seafarers’ Development Programme, NSDP, are primed to start earning good wages as the Agency has made adequate provisions for them to obtain their Certificate of Competency, CoC, by undergoing the requisite sea time training which qualifies them for global shipping and enables them to earn in foreign currencies.

The Director General made this known in Port Harcourt during the zonal tour of the Agency’s Eastern zonal offices by NIMASA’s Governing Board. He disclosed that the Agency, haven made provisions for the mandatory Sea time for the NSDP graduates in its 2017 budget proposals, hundreds of the graduate should be qualified for the international labour market soon.

Dr. Peterside reiterated NIMASA’s commitment towards building capacity for the maritime sector towards ensuring that Seafarers and Dockworkers get the best of trainings across the globe.

He stressed that NIMASA is in the process of modifying the NSDP programme in order for Nigeria to export Seafarers to the rest of the world. He added that the challenge had always been the mandatory sea time training which the Agency has resolved.

According to Dakuku “we have made adequate provision for sea time training in our 2017 budget proposal. About 2500 graduates of the NSDP programme will be assisted to get trained on Sea going Vessels for their mandatory sea time and we have concluded arrangements for the first batch to be sponsored in order to expand their chances of job placement on board ocean going vessels. With this, our youths will obtain the Certificate of Competency, CoC which opens opportunities for them to earn in foreign currencies alongside their contemporaries internationally”.

Dr. Peterside further said that the Agency is about to begin the process of training about 800 Dockworkers, adding that these workers are the helping hands in the sea Ports and needed specialized trainings which has not been done in recent times.

The NIMASA DG noted that these capacity building initiatives is geared towards ensuring that in the nearest future the country would be able to export seafarers and have more Nigerians on Ocean going vessels. He said countries like India and The Philippines enhance their GDP from the activities of the human elements of the maritime sector and that Nigeria should be able to tap into this opportunity for economic advancement.

NIMASA initiated the NSDP programme in 2009 to curb the dearth of trained and certified seafarers which is a global challenge recognized by the International Maritime Organization, IMO. The training is in conformity with the Standards of Training and Watch-Keeping, STCW otherwise called Manila Convention.

The beneficiaries of the scheme graduated from reputable maritime institutions across the world. They studied various courses such as; Marine Engineering, Nautical Science and Naval Architecture and other maritime related courses.