How robust seafaring niche market’ll grow Nigeria’s blue economy, GDP… As NIMASA seeks more maritime jobs for women

How robust seafaring niche market’ll grow Nigeria’s blue economy, GDP… As NIMASA seeks more maritime jobs for women
Steve Agbota 8th July 2019 https://www.sunnewsonline.com/how-robust-seafaring-niche-marketll-grow-n...

With a coastline of 852 kilometers bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea and a maritime area of over 46,000 kilometers, Nigeria is no doubt a huge maritime destination.

But this massive maritime potential especially in the area of sustainable growth of seafaring is still ll lying dormant despite the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), initiative promoted by the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in 2009 for the training of cadets abroad.

Even as the global maritime community awaits Nigeria to take its place in the scheme of thing, available records show that over 60 per cent of the world seafarers is supplied by 10 nations, including Philippines, Tunisia, China, Turkey, Russia, Indian, United States of America, Ukraine, Greece and Japan. Seafarers from these nations contribute billions of dollars to their country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

For instance, the Asian Tigers are a good example of nation’s that have made a fortune exporting seafarers. It was reported that out of over $16 billion remittances into the Philippines by the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFN), about $7 billion is generated by its seafarers to the country’s GDP.

Daily Sun learnt that the Philippines did not achieve this feat using one maritime academy or pockets of sponsorships abroad. The Philippines have an educational infrastructure of about 90 maritime schools graduating an estimated 45,000 seafarers annually, which explains why 20 per cent of global seafarers are from Philippines translating to one in every 5 seafarers aboard a vessel being a Filipino.

Stakeholders have however argued that if Nigerian seafarer working overseas can attract as much as $7 billion into Nigeria, it will go a long in positively impacting the nation’s real GDP.

For Nigeria to be in the same league of other 10 nations in the world earlier mentioned, there is need encourage more participation of Nigerians especially women to take opportunities in seafaring. Maritime experts have also called for the establishment of more maritime academies and universities to support Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom state to build and train a pool of seafarers in the country.

As part of efforts to have its fair share of the seafaring business, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) under the leadership Dr. Dakuku Peterside, is moving to change the narration and redress the situation through deliberate steps designed to accommodate more women in the maritime sector through capacity building and training.

To encourage more women participation, there is need to ensure that women in the industry are protected by law from all forms of human rights abuses such as gender discrimination, sexual harassment and lot more.

At the 2019 Day of the Seafarer, with the campaign theme, “On board with gender equality,” the NIMASA boss said the the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has urged nations to place more emphasis on women empowerment this year in order to draw international attention to an awful inequality in the maritime sector, where women constitute only two per cent of the total seafaring population.

Peterside said the Agency was set to do more in collaboration with stakeholders adding that NIMASA would take necessary steps to ensure improved welfare packages and working conditions for seafarers, in line with the provisions of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006.

The DG disclosed that out of the 6,039 seafarers on the Nigerian seafarers’ register, 567 or 9.3 per cent are females. Also, data from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, shows that 26 of the total 250 students in the school are females, representing 10.4 per cent, he stated.

He added that while 304 of the 2,041, representing 14.9 per cent, beneficiaries of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) are females, 32, representing 13.4 per cent, of the 239 cadets currently enjoying sea time training sponsored by NIMASA are females, stressing the Agency was committed to continuous improvement in the above global standards.

“We have since moved to redress the imbalance in the sector by adopting deliberate policies tailored towards bringing in more women to the maritime industry, particularly the seafaring profession, in response to the global concerns and in tandem with the IMO theme for the year.

He added, “We are in concert with the President Muhammadu Buhari government in its Next Level initiative, which aims at ensuring an all-inclusive development.The maritime sector is a key industry and we cannot afford to exclude the women, who make up about 50 per cent of our population, in activities within the all-important industry. So we shall be engaging stakeholders in the sector to design measures and modalities for the engagement of more women in shipping activities and other areas within the maritime workforce.”

He then called on all ship owners/operators seafarers employers and other maritime stakeholders to fully identify with the 2019 theme for Day of Seafarers celebration by putting in place sustainable policies that would guarantee equal and fair employment opportunities for both male and female seafarers.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, decried the low number of Nigerian seafarers despite being a maritime nation. He also called for full implementation of the policy, while urging stakeholders to key into the economic-oriented goal.

He added: “If the Nigerian fleet is incentivised and nurtured with requisite policies put in place, as in other parts of the world, it will give a boost to the employment of seafarers, capacity development, and contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

Bello said, shipping contributes a paltry 0.05 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP, while in other countries such as Greece; it is 3.6 per cent, and United Kingdom, 0.2 per cent.

He said floating a national fleet would also guarantee that Nigerian vessels obtain a fair share of Nigeria’s seaborne traffic, saying it will also encourage the manning of flag ships and coordination of training examination and certification of seafarers.