The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has announced the automatic employment of 20 beneficiaries of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme, NSDP, cadets who passed out with distinction in their various fields of study.
Making the pronouncement during the flag-off ceremony of the first phase of the NIMASA fully sponsored sea time training for cadets, Director-General, , NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, said, “In the first phase, 150 cadets under the scheme are bound for Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Marine Transportation in Alexandria, Egypt, to commence their mandatory sea-time training while 89 others are bound for the South Tyneside College, United Kingdom for their on-board sea-time training, making it a total of 239 in the first phase of the programme.”
“As some of you may already know, berth spaces are not easy to come by, therefore, one of the biggest challenges we had was sourcing for berth spaces for the cadets coupled with the desire of this administration to follow due process in all our dealings. We have therefore, engaged various Maritime Training Institutions to provide this essential services.
“Let me thank the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, who has been up and doing about growing the maritime sector in Nigeria and to say to him to count NIMASA as number one supporter and one agency that will go ahead and support him to turn around the fortunes of the nation’s maritime sector.”
He acknowledged the fact that sea time berth is a global challenge which the International Maritime Organisation, IMO also admits, but Nigeria is leaving no stone unturned in changing the tide hence the agency’s determination to ensure that all the cadets in the NSDP scheme get the mandatory sea time training in batches.
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