27 December 2007
Lagos — The International Naval Survey Bureau has decried the dearth of maritime manpower development in the Nigerian shipping sub-sector, saying that the situation, if not urgently handled could set the country many years back.
Speaking at this year's annual lecture of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS) held in Lagos recently, the Chief Executive of the Bureau, Engineer Akin Olaniyan, said that the need for a continuous training of human capital in this sector cannot be overemphasised.
He explained that over the last forty years, seaborne trade has risen from less than six billion tonnes to 25 billion tonnes going by the reports of the United Nations, adding so also the need for qualified crew men has increased.
He said, "The operations of merchant ships have contributed over USD350 billion in freight rates which is equivalent to about 5% of total world trade.
"It is therefore obvious why nations embark on extensive and elaborate preparations and campaign in order to effectively acquire and secure sea power.
"I stand before you here today to emphasise the need for a continuous human capital management and development in the maritime industry which has been bedeviled by shortage of crew, technical and managerial expertise, low retention rates, question in quality of seafarers and more recently the under-utilisation of experienced man power to the detriment of developing the in-coming generation
"The human resources aspect is the first and most important thing to be considered in this sub-topic.
"Human resources are abundant in most countries, particularly developing economies.
"Even economists of recent have come to believe that national economy and development is closely linked to human resource development."Here we are concerned with human resource development in the maritime sector.
"Accordingly, the traditional maritime countries in the past and all progressive maritime have perceived the need to assume the lead role and primary responsibility in harnessing such human resources and utilising them appropriately to maximum national advantage in the maritime shipping fields including the securing of benefits to the national seafarers and associated professionals in the nation's shipping industry."
The Bureau boss, however, urged government organisations and private companies to embark on continuous retraining of their staff through short term academic and professional programme as well as long courses.
Apart from shortage of man power, some of the teaching staff need further training to enhance their efficiency.
"Another issue that should be expatiated upon is the maritime training institutions or institutions offering maritime related courses man power problem .
"Not too long ago, a field work was conducted by the Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron as a consultant was contracted to look into the training needs of the maritime training institutions of the country.
"The situation painted in the report is yet to improve ."Of the seven training institutions surveyed, only the Nigerian Ports Authority recorded no short fall", he added.
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