Vincent Toritseju
02 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — THE Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited has commenced the training of Nigerian maritime professionals in its newly commissioned world class Maritime Centre of Excellence in its Bonny Island base aimed at stopping capital flight.
Speaking to journalists during a tour of the centre, Head of the Centre, Mr. Adebisi Olowu said that the centre is NLNG’s reaction to the local content initiatives by the Federal Government adding that the simulation equipment has calibrated to four rivers in Nigeria.
The rivers, according to Olowu are the Bonny river channel, the Calabar Lagos and Warri port channels.
He explained that the training will provide a cost savings profile for maritime professionals who will want to upgrade themselves as the programmes at the centre are tailored towards International Maritime Organization, IMO, and the requirements.
“Instead of going abroad for training, we can design training programmes to meet your specific and operational needs locally and thereby saving you monies that would have been taken abroad.
“The Maritime Centre of Excellence is also approved by the world’s biggest classification society, DNV-GL just as it presents a more structured, practical and hands-on approach“.
Besides training, Olowu also said that the centre is involved in research and consultancy which includes ship sales, cargo surveys, dive operations and emergency response, vessels and voyage optimization, vetting and compliance and proficiency assessment.
He explained that the Maritime centre of excellence is a world class maritime training centre set up to provide mandatory and generic based maritime training and programme for professionals in the industry.
He said that the range and quality of maritime courses at the MCOE is unrivalled and meets the stringent international requirement of global shipping industry.