By Shina Badmus
The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside has acknowledged the fact that the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU) is in dire need of more funding to cater for infrastructural issues and many other challenges confronting the university.
Speaking to newsmen over the weekend in Kurutie, Delta State when the NMU had its first matriculation ceremony for its 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 new intakes, the NIMASA DG thanked the federal government for the support given thus far for the maritime university.
According to Dr Dakuku Peterside, “I am feeling elated right now because this is a fulfilment of a dream. You will recall that many years ago, precisely in the year 2013, NIMASA initiated the idea of a Nigerian maritime university to fill a gap. We identified the fact that if we want to grow our maritime industry, we need three important elements namely the asset which is the vessel itself.
The second is the human capacity while the third is the supporting infrastructure. Of all these three, the most important is the human element.
“We clearly identified the fact that we were lacking in the human element to build capacity. To build capacity, we needed our own maritime university. We are among the leading maritime nation without a maritime university. So, today is the fulfilment of that great dream.”
On the grant given to the university by the Federal Government, the NIMASA DG stated that: “We appreciate the grant given by the Federal Government to support the numerous grant given by NIMASA to the NMU. However, it is without a doubt that we need to put more money here because the university is without infrastructure aside its available human resources.
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