The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has supported the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State with a donation of N2 billion.
This is apart from the statutory five per cent of NIMASA’s income that the academy receives.
The NIMASA, Director-General, Patrick Akpobolokemi, revealed this in Lagos yesterday during the visiting President of the World Maritime University (WMU), Bjorn Kjerfve, at the Boardroom of the agency’s Maritime House headquarters on Burma Road, Apapa, Lagos.
Akpobolokemi said that the agency gave out N1 billion to MAN Oron last year to upgrade its facilities and prepare it for upgrading to a university.
“We are desirous of seeing to it that the academy is well positioned to cope with the challenges of developing competent manpower for the maritime and allied industries and that is why we will continue to support it even beyond the statutory role we are required to play,” he said.
The NIMASA boss also said that one maritime academy is not enough for Nigeria considering the size of its youthful population. He said the government was working to create more maritime training institutions in the country.
While the visiting speaking, Bjorn Kjerfve of WMU said that his visit to Nigeria was long overdue, since, according to him, the country has the second highest number of the university’s alumni in the world and is next only to China.
Kjerfve said that his visit to Nigeria had taken him to the Federal Ministry of Transport in Abuja and the MAN Oron, pledging to assist the academy in its quest to upgrade its offerings and status.
He said that the WMU, based in Malmö, Sweden is a postgraduate maritime university founded by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN).
Established by an IMO Assembly Resolution in 1983, the aim of WMU, according to him, “is to further enhance the objectives and goals of IMO and IMO member-states around the world through education, research, and capacity building to ensure safe, secure, and efficient shipping on clean oceans.”
He said that the WMU is truly an organisation by and for the international maritime community.
“The University operates on the basis of a Charter adopted by the IMO Assembly, and is accountable to the IMO Secretary-General, Council and Assembly, and to an international Board of Governors composed of representatives of some 50 different governmental, industry, labour and educational bodies.
“The University presents its annual report and budget to the IMO Council and also reports to the biennial session of the IMO Assembly. WMU receives the status, privileges and immunities of a UN institution in Sweden,” Kjerfve said.
