The Managing Director of the Nigeria NLG Ship Management Limited (NSML), Abudulkadir Ahmed, has revealed that the nation’s maritime workforce gap is narrowing steadily, as the company’s Maritime Centre of Excellence (MCOE) in Bonny Island has now taken 272 cadets through full sea-time training, with 54 more currently at college or aboard vessels working toward their Certificates of Competency.
Ahmed made the disclosure while presenting a paper titled “Overview of the NSML MCOE: Positive Disruption in Africa’s Maritime Manpower Development” at the 2026 Maritime Training Institute event organized by the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) in Lagos on Friday.
He described the centre, a research, consultancy and training facility on Bonny Island, as a deliberate response to long-standing obstacles facing African seafarers, including weak access to accredited training, poor simulator infrastructure, and limited sea-time placements.
According to the presentation, the MCOE has secured a broad spread of international accreditations, including DNV certification under ISO 9001:2015 and the DNV-ST-0029 standards for maritime simulator and training centres.
It has also obtained recognition from the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency for six courses, the Nautical Institute for Dynamic Positioning programmes, and further approvals from the Marshall Islands, Bermuda, and Nigeria’s maritime regulator, NIMASA.
The centre’s flagship Seafarers Continuous Development Programme, run in partnership with NIMASA and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, was cited as the main vehicle behind the sea-time figures, addressing what the paper called one of the most persistent obstacles to certifying African seafarers.
Ahmed also pointed to NSML’s wider Nigerianisation push, noting that the company now employs more than 700 seafarers as of August 2026, making it the largest employer of qualified Nigerian seafarers in the sector.
Beyond training, the presentation outlined the centre’s role in maritime research and consultancy, covering shipbuilding supervision, dry docking oversight, and vessel lifecycle support, positioning it as a knowledge hub feeding back into its training curriculum.
Looking ahead, Ahmed said the centre is working with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board on an expansion project intended to widen its course offerings, with the long-term goal of making most international maritime certifications obtainable within Nigeria.
