Commercialise Navy dockyard for manpower development, Ihenacho

Naval authorities have been called upon to commercialise their dockyard to assist in their manpower development, as well as assist the maritime industry in dry docking of vessels for shipowners in the country. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, who gave the charge in Lagos, said that the completion of the commercialisation process of the dockyard started some years back by the Naval authorities would help in the training needs of the Navy.
Ihenacho also noted that the use of the facility would provide an option for operators for the dry docking of the vessel. The Integrated Oil and Gas Limited boss who disclosed this while playing host to some Navy personnel, explained that Niger-Dock facility is not big enough because the dock is just 32 meters.
He noted that the emphasis in Niger Dock presently is on profit and therefore not favourable to operators.
He also took the visiting naval personnel on a tour of one of his six tanker vessels, the 8,400 Dead Weight (D/W) M/T Lister and explained to them the difficulty of getting qualified seafarers to man his vessels which have all- Nigerian crew.
He pointed out that his company had to engage some graduate cadets from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron to give them the necessary sea time required for acceptance at the international level.
He called on the relevant government agencies to partner with the private sector to provide training vessel to meet the training needs for the nation’s cadets, noting  that the benefit is not only enormous for the nation’s maritime industry, but for the economy through export of seafarers.
Similarly, while conducting them round the tank farm facility at Ibafon, Ihenacho intimated them of the multi-million naira fire fighting gadget which has foam and water solution to eliminate any threat of fire. He told his visitors that his company embarked on the extra security measures because of its belief in surpassing the industry standards.