Maritime Academy commissions N30m training equipment
| | Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron has commissioned a N30 million equipment donated by the Nigeria LNG Limited for training in safety.
It was learnt that the new equipment had led to accreditation of the institution by the Maritime and Coastal Agency (MCA).
The donor company in a statement noted: “Maritime safety in Nigeria
would soon improve remarkably with the recent accreditation of the
Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron by Maritime and Coastal Agency
(MCA). MAN is the only maritime institute in Nigeria.”
The academy now offers the highly sort after Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boat (PSCRB).
The training is on management of injured persons, including the control
of bleeding and shock, survivors and survival craft after abandoning
ship.
This will enable it provide high quality training of international
standards in marine safety locally; a mandatory certification for all
seafarers which had before now only been offered internationally.
The NLNG recruits its entire cadet from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria.
Earlier, Mr Olu Akinsoji, an engineer and former rector of the academy
explained that if the country was determined to develop its manpower,
it could make first class certification from the Maritime Academy of
Nigeria .
He said that only right training for the right people drives the economy in the comparative market.
Akinsoji added: “Training of seafarers is a composite thing. If you
have a college, you must have a ship which is the industrial base to
compliment it.
It is a composite thing, you cannot take one out because the Standard
of Training, Certification and Watch keeping (STCW) is very clear on it
.
Akinsoji explained that Maritime Academy, Oron was not the problem
because it had satisfied the National Board of Technical Education
(NBTE).
He stressed :”But it suppose to satisfy STCW. The stakeholders
responsibility is there, government responsibility is also there.
“The company responsibility is to ensure that those who are going to
work for them have training and proficiency in the particular task they
are going to discharge on their ships.
“So, if a company intends to train a cadet it must ensure that the
cadet goes through appropriate training for the post they want to take
him on the ship”.
Akinsoji added that government was expected to ensure that the training
was adequate in all, saying there must be ship for the people in
accordance with the syllabus in the STCW.
He explained that government should ensure that the equipment were there with ship for the training.
He noted that there should be private- public partnership.
“Nigeria has cargo and the basis of having ship is cargo .Eighty per
cent of Nigerian cargo are government cargo. It is either contract or
oil cargo,” he explained.
Akinsoji hinted that political will and understanding were the problems facing the training of the seafarers.
“Government should be able to give incentive to the lecturers or bring
lecturers from any part of the world and pay them, after all the ports
were concession to the foreigners because they have money .
He explained that the problem facing the country was how to drive the
sector, “The professionals are not there and the politicians do not
know that their work is at jeopardy if they are not sustained by the
experts, because in shipping, it is the comparative advantage of who
know better in the practical shipping.
“It is a global market and if you don’t do it well, then those who know
how to do it will to do it for you. If you have a ship and you cannot
run it, well those who have the ship will carry the cargo and you will
be compelled to sell the ship or you give those who have the expertise
to do it for you.”So if you don’t train the people that make expertise,
you are wasting your time.
Source: Compass
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