NIMASA to Place 500 NSDP Cadets on Seatime Training

By ZION Olalekan

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has announced that it is placing five hundred cadets under the National Seafarers Development programme (NSDP) on various vessels for their seatime experience.

Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside stated this at the 4^th Shipowners Association of Nigeria Workshop and Dinner which held in Lagos recently

Even though he did not reveal the countries or the ships on which the cadets would be trained, the NIMASA boss disclosed that by next month, not less than five hundred of the cadets shall be sent out. He reiterated that two hundred cadets have already been given the seatime experience by NIMASA.

NIMASA had last sent out 200 cadets out to about three institutions including Arab Academy in Egypt and some in India and the United Kingdom.

Dakuku said, “We have placed over 200 Nigerians onboard various vessels that was part of the NSDP scheme to do their seatime because we want to grow manpower, next month we are going to place as much as 500 of them on various vessels to acquire seatime.

“At the centre of the vessel are human beings who steer the vessel from one location to the other, without seafarers we cannot get it right in our industry. We are supporting MAN Oron to grow their capacity so that they can become a world class institution that would produce graduates who can compete with every other person anywhere in the world” he said.

Peterside also disclosed that NIMASA is making efforts in support of the shipowners association of Nigeria for a transition in Nigeria’s term of trade from the Free On board (FOB) it is currently operating on, to Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF).

He assured that “in the next few months we would carry out the transition so that Nigerians can bring cargo into our country.

“We are determined to disburse the CVFF, we have gotten the buy-in of the honourable minister for him to understand that by disbursing the CVFF we are growing our economy and employing more persons, the minister is on the same page with us and I want to say to you with all degree of confidence, in the next coming year, I see us disbursing the CVFF”.

The NIMASA DG revealed that the agency is seating with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board to work out a five years vessel demand forecast, assuring that “they would tell us, in the next five years, what vessels they would need so that Nigerians can buy the vessels and get ahead start ahead of their foreign counterparts”.