Nigeria’s foremost maritime training institution, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, recently signed an agreement with the NLNG Shipping and Marine Services Limited (NSML) for sea-time training for cadets in the Academy. In this report, Tola Adenubi looks at what this means to the Academy and Nigerian shipping at large.

For years, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), located in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, has struggled to get sea-time training, a mandatory cadetship programme, for its cadets, leaving many graduates of the school struggling to secure jobs on ocean-going vessels, due to the limited type of Certificate of Competency (COC) that is issued to them after graduation.

However, the emergence of Dr Kevin Okonna as acting Rector of the Academy seems to have put the issue of lack of sea-time to rest, following his ability to strike an agreement with the NLNG Shipping and Marine Services Limited (NSML) to allow cadets of the Academy go onboard their vessels for sea-time training.

Dr Okonna, through the execution of an MoA signed on December 19, 2025, has been able to put 43 cadets of the Academy onboard the 13 ocean-going vessels of the NSML, a feat that looked impossible some years back.

L–R: Chief Executive Officer, APM Terminals Nigeria, Frederik Klinke; Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Markets, Senator Osita Izunaso; and General Manager, Eurocham Nigeria, Chigozie Okwara at the European Business Chamber Nigeria (Eurocham) Annual Conference and Expo held in Lagos, recently.

Why Sea Time?

Speaking with The Nigerian Tribune, the National President of the Nigeria Association of Master Mariners (NAMM), Captain Tajudeen Alao, explained that without sea-time, a cadet that graduated from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria or any other maritime training institution is more or less like a lawyer who graduated from a university but has not attended the Nigerian Law School.

 

According to Captain Alao, “When you go to school, you learn the theory and principles of your course that you have put in to study. However, if you don’t have the practical experience after graduating, what you have learned is just on paper.

“Same thing happens in the study of Law and Medicine. These courses are not complete without the practical aspects being completed. This is what the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) has just achieved.

“As a cadet, if you want to be sought after by shipping companies in the labour market, you must have sea-time experience on a foreign-going ship. Certificate of Competency (COC) is divided into three: Inland Water, Near Coastal, and Foreign-going, which is also called Unlimited.

“As a cadet, if your experience falls within Inland Water or Near Coastal, nobody will examine you for a foreign-going ship because you have not been tested on different waters of the world or different ports of entry.

“A ship is not something that is manned by just anybody. We are talking of an asset worth billions of dollars. Aside from the fact that a ship is very expensive, she also carries cargoes worth billions of dollars. If a ship is not properly manned, it can cause financial damage to the owners of the cargo or cause marine pollution to water bodies. It can also lead to loss of human lives because there are people onboard the vessel.

“So, what sea-time affords the cadets is the experience onboard vessels. The ability to move cargoes from point A to point B is not learned in the classroom, it is learned onboard vessels out at sea.

“A cadet must know how to load cargoes and how to stow them. A cadet must know onboard ship operations. A cadet must know about the weather, about navigation, damage control, maintenance and others because if anything happens to the ship, and it affects the cargo onboard, litigation comes in.

“The weather can be cold, harsh, hostile. The sea can be rough. A seafarer must never be frightened. So, as cadets, you must have been tested onboard vessels to handle these situations. You don’t learn these in the classroom. It is after all this that a cadet is issued an Unlimited Certificate of Competency.

“All these cannot be achieved on a training ship. Only a ship that is trading internationally like the NSML vessels can afford cadets all these things.”

Benefit to Nigeria

On how the country benefits from the sea-time availability at MAN, Oron, the President of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, Aminu Umar, explained that the country stands to earn more foreign exchange.

Aminu Umar, who is also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Sea Transport Services Nigeria Limited, however, added: “I want to commend the NSML for what they have done.

“The NSML is giving Nigerian trained cadets the opportunity to learn seafaring on the biggest stage, global shipping. This will afford the cadets the opportunity to get jobs not only on NSML-owned vessels, but on any foreign-owned ocean-going vessel.

“If you look at countries like India and the Philippines, they earn so much foreign exchange from their seafarers who man different foreign vessels trading globally. So, this is what Nigeria stands to gain if these cadets scale through their training process.

“Cadets scale through their training process. We will have many seafarers working onboard foreign vessels and remitting foreign exchange back into the Nigerian economy every month. This will go a long way in further strengthening the naira against the dollar.

“What the NSML has done is very good. I want to commend the acting rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Dr Kevin Okonna, for this feat. Aside the agreement with the NSML, the Academy, through Dr Okonna, has also engaged some cadets of the Academy onboard vessels belonging to indigenous ship-owners.

“I know that we have about 15 cadets from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria onboard our vessels at Sea Transport Services Nigeria Limited.

“All these will help the Academy because the cadets that have gone onboard these vessels will give the Academy feedback that will improve their curriculum. The NSML engagement will help the cadets give feedback to the Academy on where they need to improve and make some changes.

“I am very happy with the acting Rector of the Academy. He has shown that he is a very smart and intelligent individual who is ready to explore opportunities in the Nigerian shipping industry.”

Elated Cadets

For many of the cadets, the move is a career-defining voyage. Speaking on behalf of the cadets, Owoeye Boluwatife Kamil of Nautical Science (hort) stated that, “As beneficiaries of this effort by the Academy and NSML, we stand here today not just with thanks, but with a renewed sense of purpose.

“We reaffirm our commitment to diligently implement everything we have learned in class. The national investment in us will be reflected in our enhanced performance and dedication.”

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