Shipping Manifest

Capacity building will enable Nigeria tap maritime potentials, says NIMASA boss, Akpobolokemi 

  Capacity building will enable Nigeria harness the potentials in the maritime industry, according to the Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety (NIMASA), Mr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi.

Akpobolokemi, who stated this when he met with the management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), alongside other NIMASA officials, over the establishment of an Institute for Maritime Studies at the university, lamented that the country has been unable to tap the opportunities in the nation’s maritime industry due to inadequate trained personnel.

He noted that the country’s maritime industry is presently dominated by foreign interests due to inadequate indigenous personnel.

The NIMASA boss added that not until Nigeria trains her own people to take up the trade, the country will not benefit from the gains of the industry as it will result in capital flight from the nation.

“We should be able to train our younger ones to take over the challenges in the maritime industry. We cannot allow non-Nigerians to take over this industry completely and off course we also know that in the area of employment generation because the maritime sector is a good avenue to start from and for you to get the needed manpower you must train them by building capacity first.

“Shipping is like the hub uniting the entire maritime world right now apart from information communication technology but if you do not build capacity, it means that the opportunities that abound in the maritime sector will never be tapped and even when tapped we may not benefit because we do not have the capacities,” Akpobolokemi said.

On why UNILAG was selected as site for the establishment of one of the Institutes of Maritime Studies to be sited across the country, Akpobolokem said that it was as a result of the university's contribution to national growth and development, availability of manpower and its close location to the waterfront.

The NIMASA boss equally disclosed that the Agency will fund the various institutes, which will be established in UNILAG; Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University, Niger State; University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsukka, Enugu State; and Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, for the next five years before the various universities will take over to the funding.

Akpobolokemi urged the UNILAG management to come up with a robust curriculum that will attract foreign interests.

Responding, Acting Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Rahamoni Ade-Bello, said that the visit of the NIMASA boss is a promise kept, noting that Akpobolokemi had earlier promised to make the fund available for the establishment of the institute as soon as the National Assembly approves the budget of the agency.

Ade-Bello assured Akpobolokemi that UNILAG will support NIMASA to ensure that the project becomes a reality, noting that the institution will build upon the long existing relationship between both organisations.

The don added that that establishment of the Institute of Maritime Studies will further solidify the relationship between the duo.