Why Shipowners are rejecting NIMASA’s certificates - Merchant Navy

By ZION Olalekan |

The Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transporters Senior Staff Association has said that Certificate of Competency (COC) issued by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is being rejected by shipowners because the agency has limited the seafarers to only coastal (local) voyages.

Deputy Secretary General of the union, Comrade John Okpono in a chat with Nigeriamaritime360.com explained that there is a clause on the certificate called “Near Coastal Voyage (NCV) which automatically restricts Nigerian seafarers to only coastal voyages.

He charged NIMASA to replace the terminology.

He urged NIMASA to work towards expunging the clause from its COC issued to seafarers, even as he said that many seafarers today prefer to write their Certificate of Competency exams in Ghana and other countries which does not have such a clause and where they would not be limited to local operations.

“We have written and discussed it with NIMASA, what they told us the last time was that their legal department is taking it up”

“When you present the NIMASA certificate, it means you can only work in the coastal area. Apart from these, anybody that wants to write examination should go and read” he said

While reacting to allegations from Seafarers that NIMASA Certificates and examination is the most expensive to seat for, Comrade Okpono argued that COC exams are never cheap but NIMASA COC is one of the cheapest in the region.

According to him, “The provision of getting COC is the same set by International Maritime Organization (IMO), so Nigeria cannot bend the rule, the certificate has to be of world standard and acceptable by shipowners”

“The position of the union is that the current COC has NCV, we don’t want that NCV (Near Coastal Voyage), we are saying that our men are more than coastal, they can go to deep offshore, we are saying that they should bring in another higher terminology”

“In terms of price, we believe no where is cheap, Nigeria is even cheaper, in America, it takes 5,000 to seat for the COC exams”