MAN, Oron Upgrades Facilities

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron has upgraded its facilities and infrastructure to meet up with the world standard of a training institution.

This was made know by the Rector of the school. Mr. Joshua Okpo who said according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the World Maritime Universities curriculum, the academy has placed itself among some of the leading training institutions in the world.

“At present, the school has been properly upgraded in accordance with the new IMO and World Maritime University curriculum to fully put the school on a sound academic standard to produce quality and qualified manpower for the world international trade.

“The school has been repositioned in accordance with the IMO standards for such a training institution, which made it among the best maritime academies in the world. The school is churning out qualified manpower who are among the best in the world today, he said.

Okpo reiterated that with the dwindling oil prices, Nigeria can make huge fortunes in the maritime sector by exploring both the human and material resources especially exporting qualified manpower from the academy.

The dwindling oil fortune in Nigeria has forced attention back to the maritime sector which is the second highest earner for the economy of Nigeria which also has the potential of vast resources to keep the country going.

Okpo said that the academy was managing the limited resources available to the institution in the past three years to achieve these feats.

He added that the school, which has been underfunded for the past years, was however given a funding lift in 2007, when it secured a 5% capacity building funds from the revenue accruing to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in its 2007 Act adding that succour did not come to the school, until four years ago, when NIMASA started releasing the funds in bits to the school.