Why I’m backing this country (Kenya) to become a major crewing force

Why I’m backing this country to become a major crewing force
October 24, 2024 https://splash247.com/why-im-backing-this-country-to-become-a-major-crew...

Carl Martin Faannessen, the CEO of Noatun Maritime, on the potential for Kenya to become a seafaring hub.

Once upon a time there was a crewing company in one of the main hubs for crewing. It was getting requests from Chinese owners to supply ratings, which made little sense considering the number of Chinese seafarers. One of the owners said: “Our people can make the same money staying ashore now, so why sail?”

This was a moment of clarity. A bit of digging showed that once GDP per capita got to $12,000 to $15,000 the interest in seafaring plummeted. This was the story from the UK, from Norway, from Spain – and now increasingly China.

The crewing company’s home country was well on track to reach those GDP numbers within a decade. They realised that the work to prepare a new crew pool had to start now.

After a fair bit of analysis, the crewing company short-listed Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. They started with Kenya and flew two people over. After a few days, including minister-level meetings, they flew home and told a third colleague to join for the next trip. There was something there.

The third colleague (a grizzled captain, port state inspector and certified assessor) did so. After a few days, he said: “If we had received these candidates back home, we would have hired all of them.”

They assessed and approved a total of 48 seafarers over two days – more than enough to get the ball rolling. The team secured support from the local maritime administration and union, and collected expressions of interest from shipowners and -managers.

The management team took the final plan to the board, who had been appraised of the initiative, and asked for limited funds to launch the project. Two of three owners agreed, but the third insisted the company focus on its home turf and spend neither time nor money pursuing “flights of fancy” like this. This was 2019. (The third owner sent people to Kenya this year to recruit Kenyans for cruise vessels, validating the initiative.)

It’s easier to waste opportunities than to create them. Fast forward to today, and Kenya has dispatched thousands of seafarers to the cruise industry and they are a growing presence in the non-cruise fleet as well. Several reputable owners already have Kenyan crew onboard.

What many of these owners experience, and we try to put this politely, is that MLC-compliance from local manning agents is not always a priority. These are early days, and an industry that attracts the cashflows of crewing will always attract people who are more focused on the money than the crew.

That’s why Noatun Maritime has established a JV in Kenya with CSCS Intl Manning. We share a common understanding that the early movers need to set the bar at the international level from day one, that compliance is not a cost – it is an assurance for growth. We are the first ISO-certified crewing company in the country, and it’s a lead we don’t intend to surrender.

Time to put our money where our mouths have been since 2019. To our Kenyan friends: Jambo! We look forward to working with you and prove to the maritime industry that you, too, are great seafarers.