In this interview with ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA, he talked about issues affecting global acceptance of Nigerians seafarers, certification and other issues affecting shipping in the country and what the company is doing to salvage the situation.

Nigeria LNG has been a major player in the global and Nigerian shipping business. What has been the role of the NSML in manpower development for the nation’s maritime sector, looking at the shortage in the industry, particularly in the training of cadets in the country?
NIGERIA LNG is mostly a pioneer industry in terms of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business and shipping is a very important and critical aspect of LNG value chain. This shaped the ability to move gas from one location to another rather than the pipelines.

From the onset, NLNG started with the ownership of vessels in 1983. The first aspect, even before the decision to build the plant was taken, was that the shareholders invested in acquiring a certain number of vessels in preparation for the business. Over time, the company has chartered 23 vessels to enable the delivery of cargoes all over the world. There was a requirement for shipping officers and crews that would man those vessels and that was the essence of the purpose of creating NSML 13 years ago, which is the ability to have an entity that would provide manpower to man and operate those vessels.

The trajectory of the business has been about ensuring we have qualified Nigerian seafarers to man and operate Nigeria’s LNG resources.

NSML as an entity is a technical manager of some of those vessels and technical management goes beyond just simply operating the vessels, it is also ensuring you have the right number of people who are qualified to man and maintain those vessels. Also organising and ensuring dry-docking. All the elements ensure those vessels move cargoes efficiently and effectively.

At the beginning, one of the things that NLNG did was train and sponsor the training of officers so that they will have qualified manpower skills. Over the years, with the frequent training, we ended up without achieving a certain number that was sufficient to man those vessels, but we continued as NSML to support and train seafarers in conjunction with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), under the Seafarers Continuous Development Programme (SCDP), which is really about ensuring that NIMASA’s sponsored cadets have berth spaces and time onboard our vessels to finalise their training.

So far, we have done quite well on that and for us, it goes beyond just simply our needs, it is about ensuring Nigeria has a pool of certified seafarers who can actually man and operate any vessel globally.

For the element of Certificate of Competency (CoC), you do not complete a CoC certification until you have actually completed your sea time and unfortunately, we as one of the largest technical managers of vessels in Nigeria, are one of the people that can provide that sea time experience. Of course, NIMASA does that with other entities as well, but we are critical in that aspect.

For the purpose of our own crew, we have our own crew who are already certified and the element of certification is that you need to keep renewing it periodically. Your certification is the responsibility of the crew. It is your own document that makes you a seafarer. So it is the responsibility of the seafarer to ensure his certification is kept alive. But we as an organisation also support that and part of supporting that, is that for any individual who has a certificate upgrade, we ensure paying off his tuition, we also give them upgrade bonus as a way of encouraging them, it is almost like a sponsorship.

But the responsibility of ensuring your certificate is valid and alive is the responsibility of a seafarer. This is the standard industry practice and as an organisation, we have gone beyond that to say we want seafarers to keep the certificate alive and continue to upgrade it. For every upgrade, we will pay off their tuition and we will give them a bonus for achieving that.

NSML has a policy called “Nigerianisation.” Where are you on that in terms of implementation?
That to us is very critical. We are a Nigerian company and for that reason, in line with our vision of supporting the growth and development of the Nigerian maritime sector, we cannot be a Nigerian company with a pool of seafarers that are predominantly foreign. We took a particular decision to ensure that we end up achieving, in the first instance, 100 per cent capacity to manage and run our vessels. However, because we are also international and the shipping business is international, you don’t want to over-localise yourself and we are within the context of our parent company’s business, which is international – providing cargoes internationally. It was important we have cross-fertilisation of cultural mix, so we always have a mixture of crews from India, the Philippines, Ukraine, Russian and Croatia. The entire plan for Nigerianisation is 85 per cent by the end of 2022.

At the end of 2021, we were at 84.6 per cent, and we know we will meet 85 per cent. When it comes to the ratings, we have a few Philippines, but that is again from our cross-fertilisation and mixture of over 90 per cent of these are Nigerians. When it comes to the officers at the higher level we have Croatians, Malaysians and Indians. But predominantly, they are Nigerians and we expect that by the end of 2022 we will meet our 85 per cent target.

That to us is quite critical because essentially, the purpose for which the company was created was to find a way of domiciling the skill sets required to run and operate an NLNG vessel locally. In managing the NLNG vessel, yes you can get the certificate of going to sea with any ship, but an NLNG vessel is a different skill. So it is about ensuring we domicile those skill sets locally and so far, we have been able to go significantly well.

Can you compare Nigerian seafarers with their foreign counterparts, especially those you have trained?
There is no difference. As Nigerians, we want to localise things and we want to create the Nigerian standard and there is nothing like that in shipping. It is a global standard that everybody adheres to. To be fair, there is one thing about the Nigerian seafarer, especially working for the Nigerian entity, which we do appreciate, it is the ownership and commitment, there is nothing more satisfying and those of us working in Nigeria LNG will be able to tell why NSML is a success factor. It is simply because you feel that sense of ownership. This is a Nigerian company-owned, run and managed by us. There is that tendency to put in over and above.

For us, Nigerian seafarers compare favourably all over the world and one of the things I keep emphasising is beyond simply NSML providing crews for NSML managed vessels, we want to be able to provide opportunities for Nigerian seafarers to get gainful employment internationally. We should be in the business of exporting seafarers. India, the Philippines and a lot of these countries make a lot of money from the provision of crews on global vessels. This is a major revenue source for these countries. Nigeria has the population, skill sets, drive, and ingenuity of the Nigerian spirit – there is nothing we cannot do. But it is just about ensuring that we are focused and able to target in a manner that will ensure the Nigerian seafarer becomes the seafarer of choice internationally and for us in NSML, we are trying to be the anchor of that.

Why are CoCs issued by Nigerian maritime institutions not widely accepted globally and what can be done to correct that?
It is a work in progress. Sometimes, we tend to be too eager to reach the endpoint; there is a lot of work that needs to be done. The industry and standards are international. For another body to feel comfortable that the quality of your training and certification process is up to scratch, they need to do their verifying audit and I think this is where we haven’t got to.

To be fair, I know this current government – the last world maritime day in Lagos, the provost of Maritime Academy in Oron, mentioned the amount of investment that has been put to upgrade the academy’s facility. We in NSML have also done some audits about their facility some years back and identified gaps in terms of what they need to do and we believe those gaps have been closed. In terms of the quality of their facilities and the standard of their training, I think they are moving in the right direction. What is left is really about ensuring you get other agencies to be able to come in, and do the verification audit to be sure that it is exactly what you say it is.

But importantly, from the NIMASA side, it is about auditing their processes and systems of verification because NIMASA is certified. There are multiple verification audits on both the institute and regulatory agencies.

It is something that we have recognised because to be fair, it is so much easier for us as an operator for Nigerian CoCs to be accepted internationally. Because if they are, our seafarers do not need to fly to South Africa or the United Kingdom. Thankfully, Ghana has just achieved that now to revalidate their CoCs.

We have been discussing and working with NIMASA because we and the Maritime Centre of Excellence (MCOE) here can also do some sort of review of the system and processes just to identify gaps and see how they can try to close them.

We are on the right track, but it really requires everybody in the industry, both private and public sector participants to work together with the primary purpose to ensure those CoCs are accepted.

It is about acceptance. If people do not accept that the quality of your certificate is up to scratch – it is up to you to show them that it is. I do believe that it is on track, although it may be slow, there is a lot of effort being put into it to ensure it is being achieved.

Nigerian ship registry, sadly we are not there and it has been a major concern in the industry. What is the best way to reform Nigerian ship registry and make it competitive globally?
It goes back to acceptance. If you are a ship register, the issue will be, “will others be satisfied with your processes of inspection?” That is the essence of it. When you say you have ships registered under your flag, it means that you, like the registry, ensure those ships are maintained and operated in the right way following the standards. For others to believe, it means you the regulator have put in place the system; processes and all of those things that go into ensuring it will be done effectively in a manner that meets international standards.

The second element is that you have international regulations and standards that need to be domiciled locally. All those international laws, for them to apply in Nigeria, there need to be Nigerian laws. Things like this need to happen, but I can assure you it is a work in progress.

One of the difficulties with us is the need to declare Nigeria a maritime nation, although, it goes beyond the declaration, at least the declaration recognises that there is an area we can play in. There is a committee set up by NIMASA and we are part of it to discuss and identify the things that need to be done and a lot of those things have been identified and a lot of actions have been taken. It may look slow, but whatever is good will take a bit of time to perfect and I am sure with time, we will get there, where we will call on the Nigerian flag registry

Insecurity has been a major challenge to shipping in Nigeria such that the global shipping community sees Nigeria as a hot spot. How has this affected the movement of goods from your operating base to the market and globally?
The Deep blue project of NIMASA has significantly done a lot, its brilliant idea and implementation have gone a long way in addressing insecurity, but we are not there yet. But at least, it is a step in the right direction.

Insecurity and piracy a major risks when it comes to shipping. The impact is two folds. The first one is what you see, which is crews at risk of being kidnapped, vessels high jacked, people being killed, cargoes lost, ransom payment and others. What a lot of people don’t realise is that, behind all of that are the things that people don’t see, but it impacts the competitiveness of players operating in that environment.

Within us in NSML, first, you have the insurance going up, you have to pay the crew’s high risks area allowance, you have to install all sorts of protective equipment on the vessels, you need to have escort boats escorting your vessels in and out. All of these cost money. You pay insurance premiums, which are so much higher, even double what obtains in other locations. People don’t see that, but it does add significantly to the cost of shipping operations in these areas.

Shipping is international and it is a service provider. The risk for us is that, if we are not competitive, then this business is not sustainable because everybody producing, selling and delivering LNG wants to be able to do that competitively and unfortunately, depending on which part of the coin you are, the LNG industry has evolved into a competitive industry. People buy cargoes and are looking at the price where they are going to get the best and cheapest price, the cargoes are the same and shipping adds to that.

As a service provider, we should enable our customers to compete effectively and excel, but if we find ourselves adding more to their cost, it is only a matter of time before they say we are not the enabler they want us to be. So those are the kind of impacts that the insecurity and piracy issues at the Gulf of Guinea add to the operations of the business, beyond the physical, of course, as a company, nobody wants to put their staff, crews, vessels and assets at risk. First thing is that the safety of people is paramount. Beyond that is the incremental cost of doing business in this kind of environment.

How has the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted the global shipping business and the Nigerian maritime industry?
The Ukraine-Russian conflict, there is actual and the potential impact. The actual impact of the conflict is that a lot of seafarers come from Russia and Ukraine, although we have some of them on our fleet. You can imagine those on board and their families, those who need to go home, but the replacement cannot travel, so all of those have impacted significantly and we are beginning to see the impact in terms of availability. There is a structural deficiency already emerging within the industry of qualified seafarers, but the longer the Ukraine crisis goes on, we are also on added level because you have a large chunk of qualified seafarers who may not be available.

The other thing with regards to the potential is that at the moment it is confined within a particular location. The missiles and bombs they shoot are all guided by global positioning systems and when this kind of crisis escalates, there is a potential that those systems will be jammed and this guides all vessels’ movement and location.

It is something that we as NSML and other entities within the ship management community are keeping a very close eye on. The one thing about the shipping business is, that even though we compete against one another, we also do realise that we have to collaborate and cooperate. Certain aspects of safety and security affect all of us and that is why you find out that we turn around and provide support. The business is lonely enough that we have to work together.

From our own and shipping point of view, it is the human impact and we had to reach out to all our Ukrainian workers to engage them because it is not easy. Their families are at risk, they are on the vessels and are supposed to be 100 per cent alert. In our case, we opened up for those who want to go home, we provided the support for them to go and for those who want to move their families out, we also provided support because this is our family.

What is the success rate of the NSML flagship cadet-training programme, SCDP?
So far, over 107 cadets have gone through this programme on our vessels and currently, we are even maxed out in terms of cadets on our vessels, I think we have 52 on our vessels already. There are a limited number of cadet spaces in every vessel. For us, it has been of tremendous success. But most importantly, part of the success, beyond just simply ensuring that we can assist in the training and development of Nigerian seafarers that will be of benefit to the country and the industry, is also a veritable tool for the pipeline of officers coming into our system and 44 of the 107 cadets that have gone through the system with us have been employed within our system and they are going through as fourth engineers and third officers, which is the lowest officer level that you start with.

So it has been very successful and we are continuing to push and work with NIMASA to ensure that we provide them with that opportunity. We are also engaging NIMASA currently to be able to support with regards to the sea time. Even the post-sea time training, because we also realise that they end up with the sea time and nobody keeps an eye on what they need to do to finalise their CoC, which is a waste.

We have seen quite a few of them drop by the wayside after they have gone through our sea time programme. So we are engaging and discussing with NIMASA to see how we can support in that area, ensuring we can take a holistic overview from end to end of their training. Because the essence of it is that, for you to be a qualified seafarer, you must have that certification. It doesn’t matter if you do all these things and you end up without certification, it is a waste on those who sponsored you and a waste of your time, but most importantly, for us, operators in the industry, it also limits our choices.

So the SCDP has been very successful and it is something that we hope to continue to push and work with the relevant entities, NIMASA primarily. We are also exploring other sponsors and governments. We are also trying to engage other shipping companies globally to see if we can work with them to provide them with cadets for them to train and provide sea time for Nigerian cadets.

We cannot employ everybody because we have a limited number of vessels, but for us, the target is not about us employing everybody, it is about creating that pool of qualified Nigerians that can work anywhere in the world.

Lack of adequate equipment in our maritime academy facility to enable the cadets to have proper training has been an issue, what extent is NMSL making practical maritime training available to Nigerian youths, in terms of access to your simulators?

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, has upgraded, they have bought new simulators in the last couple of years, they are doing a lot and a lot of money is being invested in Oron, to be frank. They are upgrading their standards as well, so it is not just having the equipment, it is also ensuring the courses are up to the level of standard and work is ongoing on that.

The starting point is getting your CoC certification, we at NSML it is advanced maritime training because just having a certificate enables you to be a seafarer, but it doesn’t make you a seafarer. You need to continuously update your skillset. The simulators are available; the maritime centre of excellence is open. We train; provide courses for our staff and sister companies, that is, other shipping companies that provide shipping services to Nigeria LNG. They send their crews to undertake some of our courses. We have also been entering into partnerships and relationships with agencies to train their personnel.