Determined to avoid previous flaws and misteps of the flagship Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme, NSDP, Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr Dayo Mobereola, has carried out a major overhaul of the Scheme in line with global best practices. In recent years, the Scheme has come under intense scrutiny by stakeholders who had called for its evaluation in line with current realities to reflect our demands and aspirations as one of the fastest-growing Maritime nations in Africa. While some have called for its scrapping, others have insisted that it didn’t make economic sense or logic to send students abroad for diploma programmes when back at home, we even have better institutions to run such programs.
Shipping World Magazine can confirm exclusively that one of the key reforms initiated by Mobereola was to bring the unit directly under his office, as against the previous tradition where the scheme was domiciled in the office of the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services. To reposition the NSDP with its origin vision, the NIMASA helmsman has deployed the services of a professional master Mariner, Capt Adebayo Omotosho, who unti his recent posting, Head of Examination and Certification, Maritime Safety Department of NIMASA. Capt Omotosho is bringing to the table, several years of experience as a Mariner. His headship of the unit is coming at a time stakeholders have raised serious concerns that the scheme was not run by trained and experienced professionals.
Shipping World can also confirm from usually dependable sources that Mobereola has also cleared the backlog of Seatime and CoC of hundreds of graduates of the scheme spread across Europe and Asia. ” Yes, I can tell you authoritatively that we have cleared the backlog of graduates waiting for Seatime and Certificate of Competency in Greece, UK and Philippines , for instance , as we are currently attending to the batch sent to Romania “, said a source at NIMASA who craved for anonymity . In the confusion that trailed the scheme when Mobereola assumed duties as Director General last year, further deployment of students abroad was put on hold.
But Shipping World can confirm that the first batch of NSDP beneficiaries under Mobereola have been screened and are set to depart before the end of the year. Another innovation introduced by the NIMASA helmsman is that maritime training has been streamlined only to accredited foreign degree awarding institutions with the benificiaries of the scheme now graduating with B.Sc as against Diploma. The NSDP was introduced in 2009 to cater to the needs of a short fall in local seafarers. It is believed that close to 3000 beneficiaries may have graduated from the scheme since it’s introduction in 2009.