West and Central Maritime Organisation considers upgrade of Maritime Academy to University.

Tayo Oladipupo    |     

The Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa (MOWCA) has opened talks with member francophone countries to upgrade its Regional Maritime Academy for Sciences and Technologies of the Sea based in Abidjan to a maritime university.

According to MOWCA sources, the decision for the upgrade came up at the 12th Board of Governors’ meeting held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, recently.

The academy in Abidjan is the Specialised Organ of MOWCA in charge of training of seafarers and land-based staff of the shipping industry for the 15 francophone member States of the organisation.

This is to make it come to same level as the sister training institution for Anglophone countries, Regional Maritime University, based in Accra, Ghana

Sources at the meeting disclosed that Sea training of cadets which has been problematic for a long time, and the huge amount of arrears of contributions from member countries which amounts 1.2 billion cfa were discussed as possible areas to start from in the morning upgrade.

The process of transforming RMA into a University according to the source requires more inputs by other ministers as only 2 were present out of 8 expected at the meeting.

To allow for more inter government and ministerial inputs, I the meeting was rescheduled for a later date in Abidjan

It was agreed that a consultant will be appointed by the Management of RMA to conduct a broad study on sea training of cadets on board vessels sailing in the Gulf of Guinea.

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