Nigeria Loses over N150bn to Foreigners in Maritime Sector

 Dr. Shamsudeen Dosunmu, director general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (Nimasa) has said that Nigeria lost over N150 billion to foreign seafarers operating in the nation’s maritime sector.
He said that over 70 percent of seafarers operating in Nigeria are foreigners, and that there are about 3,000 vessels operating within the coastal and inland shipping of the sector of the sabotage law which requires vessels to be built.
Dosunmu disclosed this during a paper presentation on ‘Local Content policy in the maritime sector’ organized by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in Abuja and noted that about 50,000 vacancies exist in the seafarer’s job on various vessels operating in Nigeria including coastal and in-land operations.
The Nimasa boss also unveiled the agency’s plan to collaborate with all the 36 state government in the bid to train about 10,000 seafarers in the next ten years.
Under the arrangement, each state government is to sponsor 35 persons and pay about 60 percent of the scholarships to be provided under the scheme.
He said: “we hope to train 1,000 seafarers annually for the next five years and if sustained in the next 10 years, a vibrant pool of 10,000 officers would be developed, because there are over fifty thousand jobs in the maritime sector yet to be occupied but Nigerians are not competent.”
According to him, for Nigerians to become world class seafarers, they have to undergo a nine year training scheme which includes four years at the higher institution, eighteen months at sea dogging practices and another two years to do competency examinations, which qualifies them for ready employment. “Without the presence of the maritime sector to move them to areas of need, value is not created”.
He explained that Nigeria has only one maritime academy while other countries like Philippines with a population of over 80 million people has over forty academies, with China having 76 academics as at 2006.
Muttaqua Dama, executive secretary of the PTDF assured that, PTDT would collaborate with Nimasa in the area of education; training and helping seafarers get employed, because both Nimasa and PTDF share the same vision and mission especially in the area of capacity building.
According to him, we spend over 25,000 pounds on each Masters Student and 75,000 pounds on PhD students, after spending these amounts per student it is disheartening that they are not employed. What then is the essence of the scholarship and training? The regulators must ensure that those trained by the PTDF are employed in the oil and gas industry.
He also said that over 5,000 applications were received for this year’s scholarship but only 50 passed the exams, and the Fund has decided to upgrade eight departments in eight different universities in the country and shall increase hopefully to about twenty.