Nigeria short of officers’ cadre of seafarers, says expert

The Chairman, National Seafarers Welfare Board, Chief Kunle Folarin, has said that Nigeria is confronted with the problem of dearth of seafarers, especially in the officers’ cadre.

Folarin, the Chairman, Nigerian Port Consultative Council (NPCC) made the disclosure on Wednesday in a chat with newsmen in Lagos.

According to him, the officers’ cadre needed should be in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 to service the domestic, coastal and foreign trades.

The maritime economist, however, said that the population of Officers cadre of seafarers were far below 2,000.

He said that the officers could be engaged to serve in the proposed national maritime carrier fleet, depending on how the proposed company would be structured to grow..

Folarin said that the shortfall, if viewed from the Nigerian demand’s perspective, will be much more in the officers’ cadre and less in the Ratings cadre.

According to him, this is the pattern globally. The maritime economist said, “Government’s action should firstly be to address the issue of ship acqusition and trading by Nigerian shipping entrepreneurs.’’

Folarin explained that this could be complemented with intervention programmes like the proposed national maritime carrier project.“This will create employment for the trained manpower and immense benefits for private investors,” he stated.

Folarin also commended the move by the federal government to establish a Transport University.

He said that it was laudable that the university would offer courses in Maritime Studies, Transport Logistics, Aviation, which were professional courses that would be relevant to all transport modes.

“That is, shipping, aviation, road and rail with allied industry application to institutions that hold the modes like the ports,airports, rail terminals as well as road networks,’’ he said.