By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Tema, Aug. 27, GNA – The Ghana Merchant Navy Officers Association (GMNOA) has expressed worry over the lack of employment opportunities in the maritime industry for the country’s trained seafarers.
Mr Pius Anani Dumashie, the Vice Chairman of GMNOA, explained that due to the collapse of the Black Star Line and other shipping companies in Ghana, there were some trained seafarers, who were unemployed and had to rely on foreign vessels for employment.
He noted that the purpose of undergoing training in the marine sector was to emerge as a competent seafarer to manage the affairs of the shipping sector.
Mr Dumashie said this at the Ghana News Agency Dialogue platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world.
Speaking on the role of “Merchant Navy as against Combat Navy,” Mr Dumashie said the Ghana Nautical College (GNC), now Regional Maritime University (RMU), was established to work with the Black Star Line (BSL) to have trained seafarers to man its merchant ships.
He added that the marine sector contributed massively to the socio-economic development of many countries, noting that, Ghana needed shipping lines to employ trained seafarers to boost the economic development of the country.
“In Ghana, we don’t have any ship, it means anything you export you have to get a foreign ship and if you import too you have to get a foreign ship, and there are a lot of people who have been trained just hanging around with no jobs,” Mr Dumashie stated.
Captain Etoenyo Onassis Bankas, the General Secretary of the GMNOA, on his part, said the lack of shipping lines in the country needed to be critically addressed, lamenting that most workers in the sector were going through challenges.
He said the lack of indigenous shipping lines was hugely affecting the activities of importers and exporters in the country.
“We take a look at the current freight rate, globally and in our region, they are so high and we are wondering how they are able to keep their businesses running under such exorbitant freight rate,” Captain Bankas said.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, the Tema Regional Manager, said journalists needed to take steps to report on the blue economy to encourage better stewardship of the ocean resources.
GNA