Expert: NIMASA, MoT Responsible for 80% of Unemployed Seafarers in Nigeria

Gilbert Ekugbe

A United States Certified Anti-Piracy Security expert, Captain Alfred Oniye, has faulted the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Ministry of Transportation for the high level of unemployed seafarers in the country currently put at about 80 per cent.

Oniye, said their failure has led to the continuous dominance of foreigners in the nation’s seafaring space.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Day of Seafarers themed, “MARPOL at 50: Our Commitment Goes On,” Oniye urged the present administration to focus on employing officials who have the expertise to supervise their respective ministries.

In his words: “Some of the officials we appoint as head of agencies are far from the happenings in the sector they supervise. We have over 80 per cent trained seafarers that are jobless. Even NIMASA that trains over 3000 seafarers outside the country cannot boldly say they have employed 100 out of the 3000 trained.”

“We have enough seafarers that have been trained and well certified that are not working because NIMASA and the Ministry of Transportation have failed and I keep saying that when we appoint people who do not understand the job, we are only creating a platform for failure,” he said.

Oniye who also doubles at the Secretary-General of the Merchant Seafarers Association of Nigeria, however, said Nigeria can generate over $100 billion from it’s maritime sector.

Lamenting over the current state of the nation’s maritime sector, Oniye added that the nation is bleeding due to Nigeria’s inability to leverage the opportunities the sector offers for revenue generation.

He advised that the approved Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) should be channeled towards building local capacities to build ships rather than expending on importation of ships.

According to him, Nigeria has the technical competence to build ships locally, pointing out that empowering local capacities for ship building would create more than 5,000 job opportunities for the nation’s teeming unemployed youths.

“This is why I am more concerned about the implementation of the Cabotage Act, because if the law says that any ship that would sail within the Nigerian water ways must be built here, so why are importing ships into the country. We are already building ships all we need is to fine-tune the technical aspects. The approved CVVF should not go out and the federal government must come out with a policy that would encourage ship building in the country,” he advised.

“Building ships alone in Nigeria would create jobs for over 5000 Nigerians while the effective implementation of the Cabotage act is enough to create jobs for over 15000 Nigerians because the ship would be built here and owned by Nigerians.  If the ships are built here, manned and owned by Nigerians, it will create jobs here rather than importing unemployment by way of importing ships, which could have been built locally, “he said.

He said apart from the implementation of the Cabotage act, Nigeria must also establish Coast Guards to employ the unemployed seafarers in the country, saying that the current practice of deploying the Nigerian Navy as Coast Guards is undermining the nation’s Naval prowess.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Organising Committee, Day of the Seafarer, Captain Ogunshakin William, said challenges hindering seafaring development in Nigeria is largely due to the lack of political will, lamenting that instead of the nation’s maritime sector serving as a major revenue earner for the country, it is rather serving as a draining pipe.