…As Academy builds marine exhibition centre
L-R: President, Alumni of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (AMANO) Emmanuel Maiguwa, Rector Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Cmdr (Rtd) Duja Efedua), Emilia Paul (AMANO Member) and Odohodi EJ (Vice President of AMANO) when members of AMANO paid a courtesy visit to the MAN Oron.
The Alumni of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (AMANO) has commended the Academy’s efforts to enhance its profile and technical capacity with more stimulators, better remuneration for staff, even as it initiates plans to build a modern marine exhibition center.
The Rector of MAN Oron, Comr. Duja Efedua revealed this recently, when he hosted the delegation of Alumni of MAN Oron (AMANO), led by its President, Mr. Emmanuel Maiguwa.
Efedua told AMANO about the transformation at the Academy, saying; “the Academy now has three Major simulators, which is one of the latest in the world, Multifunctional Classroom Simulation system, Full Mission Bridge Simulation and Full Mission Engine room Simulation.”
The Rector who also received an award of excellence from the Academy’s Alumni Body commended AMANO led by Maiguwa for their continuous support for the institution and the maritime sector. He also assured that his leadership has a mission to restore the Academy to its proper place as a world-class maritime training institution.
Efedua also disclosed that efforts made by his team to tackle the challenges in the college, such as overcrowding at the hostels and classrooms, poor medical facility and poor transportation system.
He further added that the Academy was able to carry out an upward review of salaries, especially for contracted instructors with special skills, to be able to attract and keep quality personnel with regular training.
The Academy, he said, was expecting two Master Mariners to join the staff in about a week with four other expected to arrive in the coming months. The Rector said the college has a robust Corporate Social Responsibility regime in place, which has enabled it to offer employment to over 100 members of its host community, and assured that more would be employed as things progress.
He also mentioned that the Institution is now ready to start pursuing international certification as a means to propagate the shipping profession to those who come on an excursion to the school, plus working on a marine exhibition centre.
The Rector went further to say that one of the reasons for the recorded failures in Certificate of Competency (CoC) is attributed to participants’ inability to attend classes as most of them tried to juggle between retaining their jobs on a ship and attending the CoC classes.
He, however, informed AMANO that the Academy had sent about 15 members of staff to India for training that will close most of the gaps limiting the Academy.
The Rector also seized the opportunity to introduce the newly introduced Security Certificates that addressed the issue of counterfeits, adding that the certificate could also be verified online.
On his part, the President of AMANO Maiguwa Emmanuel thanked the Rector and his team for the reception accorded them and expressed delight at the excellent work of transformation being carried out in the Academy.
L-R: President, Alumni of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (AMANO) Emmanuel Maiguwa presenting an award of Excellence to the Rector Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Cmdr (Rtd) Duja Efedua during the courtesy visit of some members of AMANO to the Academy recently.
He expressed confidence in the Maritime Academy of Nigeria becoming one of the top maritime training facilities in Africa with the rapid transformation going on there.
Maiguwa stated than the aim of the visit was to enable AMANO to assess the progress on the ground and learn from the management how best AMANO could use its wealth of experience in the industry to support the Academy.
The alumni group also stated that the Academy must seek a special grant to make adequate funding available for the Academy to attract Active-Seafarers who will be motivated to share their work time between ships and Academy without losing remuneration.
“The current compensation is not attractive for attractive Seafarers, and their up-to-date knowledge and skills are required to impact the training of cadets that will compete. N600,000 is far too low to attract a sea-going Master Mariner of C/E to forgo a ship,” the President said.
