Those with a eye for business spot a lucrative trade when they see one. With their trained eyes, they have since identified maritime business as a money spinning venture. But there is a problem. Nigerians do not have the financial muscle to invest in it. They don’t also have the required personnel.
Worried by the dearth of indigenous seafarers, stakeholders are concerned that Nigeria’s maritime trade is largely in the hands of foreigners. This can be seen in the volume of petroleum products transported by foreign vessels.
Aside the ownership structure of most ocean liners, which is foreign dominated, mariners who are in the employ of the vessels, are of foreign stock. The ships are either manned by Philippines, Malaysians or Indians, leaving the few local hands in the lurch.
Stakeholders have also pointed out that foreign seafarers engaged in the nation’s coastal trade earn between $1.5 and $2billion annually. To redress this, they said the government needs to create a conducive environment and partner private operators on ship building or acquisition for training to develop a robust pool of seafarers to replenish ageing seafarers and reposition the sector.
Liquidation of NNSL
Since the dissolution of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), investigation revealed that there has been a major gap in the training of seafarers in the last 15 to 18 years.
The Managing Director, Badmus Shipping, Chief Fola Badmus said since the liquidation of the NNSL in 1995, the maritime industry has suffered a generational vacuum in the area of manpower training, making succession in the sector a herculean task. The vacuum created due to lack of training vessels, he argued, has created opportunity for foreigners to exploit the nation’s waters, leaving little or no job for Nigerians.
Available data from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and safety Agency (NIMASA), showed that seafarers from Malaysia, the Philippines and India, who work on Nigerian waters, take home between $1.5 billion to $2 billion annually because of lack of certified indigenous manpower.
The agency’s data also revealed that of the nation’s population of over 160 million, only 1,388 officers and ratings are registered; Ghana has 1,879 officers and 7,000 ratings.
Badmus said the curriculum of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, the only institute in the country for seafarers, is not designed to award internationally-recognised certificates. Similarly, because of the dearth of employment, graduates of the academy, he said, end up on the streets doing unrelated jobs.
Expressing dissatisfaction, former National President of Master Mariners, Adewale Ishola, said in the 70s, there was yearly intake of cadets for training in institutions in the United Kingdom, Canada, Egypt and Singapore, adding that there was also a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to train Nigeria’s Deck Officers and Marine Engineers at the regional academy in Ghana, which, according to him, is no longer obtainable.
He pointed out that even before the creation of the then National Maritime Authority, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was training cadets through the Ministry of Transport, as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He said some of them graduated with Masters and as first class engineers, but regretted that there were no jobs for them, adding that most of them had to look elsewhere for jobs.
The former Master Mariner said because there were not enough hands to fill the vacancies in oil and gas, foreigners were brought in for some jobs. He said the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was only training cadets to suit its needs, adding that the country is in need of seamen who can handle all types of cargoes.
He said there was the urgent need for government to bring on a new set of skilled hands to take over from those expected to retire soon.
Of the 5,000 seafarers in the country, less than 1,000 are Nigerians, the remaining, he said, are foreigners. He said over 250,000 vacancies exist for seafarers but Nigerians lack the capacity to fill them.
The dominance of the sector by foreigners, he said, is among the challenges facing NIMASA. The agency told The Nation, it is working to ensure that Nigerians take their rightful positions in the international maritime business.
Partnership to build vessels
The Managing Director, Shipping and Logistic Training, Gbolahan Adesegun, said there are no vessels fully-equipped for cadet training, urging the government to take the issue of acquisition of vessels through private initiative seriously.
The campaign for more seafarers, he said would become more effective if there is partnership with shipyards to develop their capacities to build ships locally for the Nigerian industry, otherwise, NIMASA will be working on a platform that is fragile, unrealistic and not cost effective.
Adesegun said reasonable progress can only be made by strengthening the local ship capacity building initiative to ensure seafarers are developed to satisfy the needs of the industry.
Gains from seafarers
Secretary General of the Indigenous Ship owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) Niyi Labinjo said Philippines, with a population of over 80 million, has maximised the benefits of developing its maritime labour sector. It supplies over 30 per cent or 300,000 of the 1.2 million world seafarers.
From this, he said, Philippines earns over $5 billion for its economy from repatriated income.
He said Filipino seafarers dominate the maritime labour market because of the concerted national efforts in that direction. They are among the country’s eight to 10 million migrant workers scattered across the world, whose remittances, as acknowledged even by the government, have helped buoy the economy.
Every year, Filipino workers overseas, send home over $15 billion or 10 per cent of the Philippine’s gross domestic product (GDP). The GDP is the total value of goods and services produced by the country in a year.
In some economies, Filipino sailors constitute more than 55 per cent of the maritime personnel. Labinjo said seafarers’ development is a strategic programme of the Philippine government because of the tremendous earnings from maritime manpower export. He urged the government to emulate that country.
Poor implementation of Cabotage Act
According to ship owners, poor implementation of the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act (Cabotage), aimed at creating jobs for indigenous ship owners, has resulted in low involvement of indigenous firms in shipping business. They argued that the nation was losing huge revenue to capital flight.
A major problem affecting the implementation of the Act, they said, is the dearth of manpower, brought about by training facilities and personnel. According to the ship owners, this is why the nation cannot successfully implement Cabotage as the law requires that all indigenous vessels be manned by Nigerians.
Lack of training vessels
Despite the country having a training academy in Oron, the gap in seafarers development remains worrisome.
Graduates from Oron find it difficult to compete with their counterparts elsewhere. Stakeholders attribute this defect to lack of technical structure, ranging from lack of training vessels to other platforms required for the practical training of cadets from MAN, Oron.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Chief Michael Ajayi, said a feasible plan of funding for the academy is needed so as to churn out seafarers that can stand international competition.
With globalisation, increased trade and maritime transport, there’s the need for at least 50,000 new maritime officers in the next five years, Ajayi said, adding that seafaring is a specialised endeavour which demands provision of key resources which cannot be compromised if the demand of the global maritime market is to be met.
The implication of this is the deplorable state of training facilities at Oron, which has suffered neglect in terms of resources for quality maritime education.
He said the poor state of affairs at the academy demanded that emphasis be placed on resources to ensure the highest standard of training.
Ajayi, said it is expedient to establish more academies, adding that efforts should be made to improve the academy to boost manpower development.
Ajayi said there is need for training if the nation wished to meet the maritime personnel needs, adding that the major challenge after training is completing the stipulated sea time.
He said significant steps be taken to expand the capacity of the Oron Academy and provide navigational and seamanship training. The academy, he said, is in need of attention and much remained to be done to enable it deliver vital services to the industry.
Job prospects
The President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said jobs abound on board vessels for cooks, carpenters, marine engineers, seamen and others with good remuneration.
He said there are enormous opportunities in the maritime sector, adding that the country needs more seafarers to maximise benefits of the sector.
Interest in maritime, he said would augur well for the industry.
NIMASA’s role
NIMASA Director-General Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi said about 50,000 seafaring jobs would be created for Nigerians.
To address the matter, he said, over 75 persons have been sent abroad for seafaring training under collaborative arrangement between the Federal Government and those countries.
NIMASA set up the training programme as a strategic intervention designed to address the short-medium term manpower requirements of the sector to create a large pool of seafarers in the next few years.
The generational gap in the sector requires intervention because the seafarers’ pool had further depleted because of low life expectancy, death and expanded manning requirements, pointing out that the programme would reposition the economy by building a strong transport sector, especially through shipping because of its critical nature to the economy.
Akpobolokemi said there was need to develop manpower and the country’s capacity, noting that Nigeria needs at least 50,000 seafarers to man vessels operating on Cabotage.
“The first batch of cadets is now onboard undergoing sea-time training. The initiative was a wake up call towards meeting the demand of the global shortage of seafarers. Nigeria decided to take a bold step with the intention to work towards meeting the demand as well as wealth creation, by training more Nigerian youths and supporting their gainful employment in line with Mr. President’s transformation agenda.
“You see, even if you restrict yourself to the Nigerian coastal trade or the cabotage, we have over 50,000 jobs and because of lack of capacity, most of these jobs are being taken by foreigners. NIMASA has started the development of seafaring. We have started the National Seafarers’ Development, where each state is to participate by putting 25 seafarers per annum. NIMASA pays 40 per cent of the cost of their training, while the states that send them pay the remaining 60 per cent.
“Because we realise that one of the problems we have is seafarers’ training institute, the agency is at the moment exploiting areas where partnership will be made with seafarers institutions to develop. So far, we have only one, MAN, Oron, which is not capable of providing all our personal needs, so, we are training overseas.
“Also, the University of Lagos, Niger Delta University and the University of Technology, Minna, will have seafarers training programmes. A substantial amount of money has been voted for that purpose in those institutions,” he said.
