LAGOS: The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has expanded the scope of seafarers’ training in faraway Philippines, where more than 1,000 Nigerians are currently undergoing training.
The training is a component of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), an intervention programme designed to address the manpower requirements in the country’s maritime sector.
NIMASA has spent about N20 billion to train 2,500 seafarers under the programme from 2011 to 2015.
Dr Patrick Akpobolokemi, the Director-General of NIMASA, confirmed the expenditure after the payment of the 2015 training fees of the cadets in various maritime institutions across the world.
He said that the amount included training fees, allowances, cost of laptops, books and other learning gadgets.
In 2009, NIMASA initiated the NSDP with the aim of developing human capacity and bridging the manpower gaps existing in the maritime industry.
The NSDP is a scholarship scheme, which is jointly funded by NIMASA and state governments in the ratio of 40 per cent to 60 per cent.
Recently, some NIMASA officials and journalists undertook a tour of three universities in the Philippines, which are handling the training of Nigerian cadets under the NSDP.
Observers are quick to point out that the Philippines is home to 28 per cent of the total population of seafarers in the world.
Mr Calistus Obi, NIMASA’s Executive Director, Marine Labour and Cabotage Service, who led the delegation to the Philippines, said that the training had boosted the bilateral relations existing between Nigeria and the Philippines.
At the Lyceum of Philippines University (LPU), Batangas City, 325 Nigerian cadets are undergoing maritime training, while 153 others are undergoing similar training at the University of Perpetual Help, Las Pinas City.
Besides, 350 Nigerians are currently receiving training in University of Cebu, Cebu City, also in Philippines.
Obi said that President Goodluck Jonathan had mandated NIMASA to continue with the NSDP.
He urged the students to be disciplined, adding that their commitments would determine government’s willingness to continue sponsoring the scheme.
Obi, however, said that Nigeria had started building a maritime university, the first of its kind in West Africa.
“We, the staff of NIMASA, are making sacrifices to ensure that you (cadets) continue to enjoy the benefits of the training.
“We have to cut foreign trips by staff as well as other expenses so as to ensure that you complete your training,’’ he said.
The executive director commended the management of the training institutions for also giving the students moral education.
Obi urged the students to exhibit good behaviour in all their endeavours so as to encourage the institutions to continue to partner with Nigeria.
He described the students as the “ambassadors’’ and the hope of Nigeria, reminding them, however, that “to whom much is given much is expected.
“President Goodluck Jonathan and the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Patrick Akpobolokemi, as well as the entire staff of NIMASA do not want anything short of success from these experiences.
“We have zero-tolerance for indiscipline and the purpose of this training is to enable you to excel and come back home to impart the knowledge to other students,’’ Obi said.
Speaking, Amb. Akinyemi Farounbi, the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Philippines, said that there were many opportunities in the maritime sector for Nigerian youths to tap into.
He, however, noted that the performance of Nigerian cadets undergoing seafarers training had motivated the Government of Republic of Philippines to establish three universities in Nigeria.
Farounbi said: “We have seen NIMASA, not only as an instrument of training our youths in marine engineering, marine transportation and naval architecture.
“We have also seen NIMASA as a tool of promoting and forging positive diplomatic relations between Philippines and Nigeria.
“It has been possible for this embassy to encourage three universities to establish affiliate universities in Nigeria simply because they have seen what the Nigerian students are capable of doing.
“I am proud to report that all the NIMASA scholars, as they are called here, are doing well.
“You call them students back home in Nigeria. They are called scholars here because of their capacity, their brilliance, their diligence and their ability in each of the three universities.
“I am proud of whatever had been NIMASA’s recruitment system, which had turned out these students who are doing very well here,’’ the envoy said.
Responding, Obi conveyed the appreciation of NIMASA’s management for the ambassador’s efforts to support the agency and care for the students.
“The director-general of NIMASA has also asked me to thank you very much for the way you have so far taken care of our students here,’’ Obi told Farounbi.
Some of the students undergoing the seafarers’ training in the Philippines commended the Federal Government for instituting the NSDP.
