Mkpoikana Udoma Port Harcourt — The United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNITAR, has announced plans for a one-year training for youths from the Niger Delta region on seafaring.
Although the exact number of youths to be trained was not disclosed, the Country Representative of UNITAR, Dr. Larry Boms, said a German ship company has offered to train the youths to enable them get seafaring certifications.
Boms, speaking during a virtual meeting with the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, stated that 19 United Nations, UN, development agencies were already collaborating with various Nigerian government departments and agencies.
“As an interventionist agency, the NDDC is evaluated based on how well the NDDC meets the Sustainable Development Goals.
“We propose to train Niger Delta youths in seafaring. German ship owners have offered to train the youths for one year to enable them get their seafaring certifications,” he said.
Also speaking virtually from Geneva, the Technical Team Leader, UNOSAT, Mr. Olivies Vandamme, spoke on the mission of the UN Satellite Centre, sayings its aim was to promote evidence-based decision making for peace, security and resilience using geo-spatial information technologies.
“We are engaged in environmental conservation including flood management. We are focused on developing capacity. We work with our partners to offer Artificial Intelligence- enhanced flood monitoring systems.”
“In Nigeria, we want to focus on environmental conservation. We develop customized solutions to countries by working on flood management. We provide real-time monitoring of flood situation in our country of focus,” he stated.
Reacting to the proposition from UNITAR to train and certify youths of the Niger Delta region in seafaring, the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, expressed readiness to partner with the UN agency.
“We are willing to partner with you on training seafarers. At NDDC, our focus is not just building physical infrastructures but also developing human capital.”
The NDDC boss also announced that the Commission will partner with the United Nations Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, to find solutions to the challenges of flooding in the Niger Delta region.
Ogbuku called on UNOSAT, a UN Satellite Centre hosted at the UNITAR, to proffer long-term solutions to environmental challenges such as flooding facing the Niger Delta region because temporary solutions were not sustainable and had become a drain pipe on the resources of the Federal Government and its agencies.
He noted that solving the flood challenges of the Niger Delta region could not be addressed by the NDDC alone as it called for collaboration between the Commission and the various levels of governments.
“We are open to partnership in finding a lasting solution to the perennial flood in our region. However, as an interventionist agency, we are looking at solving the problems of the Niger Delta region permanently rather than treating the symptoms,” Ogbuku stated.
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