Jamoh Sets September 2022 for Unveiling of NIMASA Safety, Security Training Center

…To Build Skill Aquisition Centres Across Nigeria

The Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr Bashir Jamoh has said that the agency is working towards September 2022 for the commissioning of its Maritime Safety and Regional Security Training Center in Lagos.

In order to complement it’s National Seafarers Development Program (NSDP), he said the agency is now setting up skill aquisition centres in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria to develop teaming youths.

Dr Jamoh made this known recently when a team from the American Embassy led by its Defense Attache, Col Williams Schaum paid a courtesy visit to the agency’s corporate office in Apapa Lagos.

According to him, the center would serve the 25 African countries in the Gulf of Guinea region as a center for research, training and ultimately to reduce the scourge of piracy in the waterways.

Speaking, he said “NIMASA is working towards the commissioning of the Maritime Safety and Regional Security Center, hopefully, within the next two months, we would be able to unveil this maritime safety and security training center.

“We have observed that each country within the Gulf of Guinea region have their own peculiar problems and reasons why the younger generation involve themselves in these crimes.

“What do we do? We would now be conducting research and development in different countries within the Gulf of Guinea, bringing out the reasons why some of these younger generation involve themselves in these crimes. In so doing, we would be able to advise the various government of these countries, to tell them the various gaps and why they are involved in these crimes.

“By the time we unveil the training institution, already we have built a curriculum for it, all the countries in the region would have to key-in, and we have to be sharing information, rubbing minds and exchange of ideas, intelligence report would be shared at the centre”

Speaking on the National Seafarers Development Program (NSDP) he said NIMASA is set to build skill aquisition centres in six geopolitical zones so as to keep the youths engaged in different skills.

“Last year October, we picked these younger generations, we sent them to school in Greece, Philippines and Egypt. Some of them are there now learning, reducing the number of them moving on the streets without jobs and trying to cause havock uneccessarilly.

“For those of them that cannot go to school, we have developed a policy that we would build skill aquisition centres in the six geopolitical zones, as you are aware, the crime doesn’t emanate from the water and end in the water, it starts on the land, and end in the water.

“So, on the land, we are now building skill aquisition centres, from the riverine areas, we would assemble fishing trawlers, we would train them how to repair ferries and build small ferries to transport passengers from one destination to another” he said

According to the NIMASA Director General, the problem of insecurities in the waterways would continue to affect trade in not just Nigeria, but the rest of the world if not addressed.

He noted that Nigeria has negligible number in terms of ship ownership, and that most of the ships calling in the region comes from the international communities.

“So the issue of trade and shipping is a global phenomenom, and if there is no safety and security in our waters, certainly the problem is not only for Nigeria, but the international communities” he said.