Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — CHAIRPERSON of the House Committee on Maritime Education, Safety and Administration, Honourable Lynda Ikpeazu, has said that the Committee will begin to look into the activities of maritime training institutions across the country that are not accredited.
Speaking to Vanguard Maritime Report on the sideline of the just concluded Maritime Corporate award and Dinner hosted by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Ikpeazu said that it was no point spending monies on institutions that have no accreditation.
She also said the maritime industry is tied to the nation’s economy adding that the Committee will do everything possible to keep its waters safe and secure.
She explained that if there were going to be changes in the legislation to make the industry work better, the Committee will not hesitate to do that.
She stated: “If there are universities and other maritime training institutions that have not been accredited, obviously, it is something that has to be looked into because it does not make sense to spend money on institutions that are accredited.
“So what we have to do is to look at it on its merit and see what needs to be done in order to get it accredited.”
On what the Committee has for the industry in the next few years, Ikeapzu said that “the responsibility of the Committee was to do an oversight on the sector because it is a very important sector and so we have to make sure that the industry is robust to keep our waters safe.
“Our responsibility is to do things that will make the industry work; right now we are actually doing an amendment of the Cabotage law.
“If there are going to be changes and amendments in some of the legislations that will make it work, we will do so.
“We will also look other legislation that govern the sector and see what we can do to make it better.”