Alumni of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, on Friday called on the Federal Government to make adequate funding available for the academy to attract active seafarers.
The President of AMANO, Emmanuel Maiguwa, said this when the seafarers group visited the Rector of MAN, Mr Duja Efedua, at the campus.
He said by so doing, active seafarers would be motivated to share their work time between ships and academy without losing pay.
“The current compensation is not attractive for seafarers, and their up-to-date knowledge and skills are required to impact the training of cadets that will compete; N600,000 is far too low to attract a sea-going Master Mariner of C/E to forgo a ship,” Maiguwa noted.
The president stated than the aim of the visit was to enable AMANO assess the progress made so far and learn from the management how best to use its wealth of experience in the industry to support the academy.
He, nevertheless, thanked the rector and his team for the reception and the transformation in the academy.
Maiguwa was confident that if the transformation was sustained for a few more years, MAN would become one of the top maritime training facilities in Africa.
In his response, Efedua announced that MAN had concluded plans to build a modern marine exhibition centre.
Efedua, while briefing AMANO on the transformation at the academy, said, “The academy now has three major simulators, which is one of the latest in the world, namely Multifunctional Classroom Simulation System, Full Mission Bridge Simulation and Full Mission Engine Room Simulation.”
He assured that his leadership was planning to restore the academy to its proper place as a world-class maritime training institution.
The rector also expressed delight that most of the problems that bedeviled the institution in the past had been addressed. He listed the challenges to include overcrowding of cadets in hostels and classrooms with a hostel room accommodating up to 18 cadets in the past, poor medical facility and poor transportation system.
According to him, the academy was able to carry out an upward review of salaries, especially for instructors with special skills, and provide regular training for personnel.
He added that the academy was expecting two master mariners to join in about a week and four more in the coming months, even as he said the academy employed over 100 members of the host community in its transformation agenda.
He said the institution was set to pursue international certification.
One of the reasons for the recorded failures in Certificate of Competency, he observed, is participants’ inability to attend classes, as most of them tried to juggle between retaining their jobs on a ship and attending the CoC classes.
He, however, informed AMANO that the Academy had sent about 15 members of staff to India for training to bridge the gap limiting the Academy.
The opportunity was seized by the rector to unveil the new security certificates that addressed the issue of counterfeits, adding that the certificate could also be verified online.
