By Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Accra, Oct. 24, GNA – Mr Carlos K. Ahenkorah, Member of Parliament for Tema West, has called on stakeholders in the Maritime industry to allocate a budget to support the training of maritime professionals at the Regional Maritime University (RMU).
He said the maritime industry was a capital-intensive industry and therefore the University needed more financial resources to be able to provide the necessary infrastructure and equipment for its programmes.
Mr Ahenkorah made the call during the launch of the Regional Maritime University Scholarship Fund with a target of GH₵250,000 in Accra.
The scheme will help the University to attract and retain the best students from the region and support training of maritime professionals.
The RMU was established in 2007 to help train the required human resources for the maritime industry and to become a centre of excellence for maritime education, training, research and consultancy in the sub-region.
The maritime industry is a very important sector of Ghana’s economy as it represents about 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
He said the industry was currently facing a severe shortage of skilled workers and to address this shortage, “we need to encourage more young people to consider careers in the maritime industry.”
He said one of the best ways to do this is to offer scholarships to students who attend the RMU, adding that the maritime industry was vital to the economic well-being of our nation.
The RMU is the first and only public university in Ghana and the sub-region established specifically to train maritime professionals and it is also the only tertiary institution in Ghana which offers programmes that are accredited by the Ghanaian Maritime Authority and the International Maritime Organization IMO.
Mr Ahenkorah said by offering scholarships, “we can make sure that more young people have the opportunity to study at this excellent university.”
He said the University had over the years turned out maritime professionals, who were manning various positions in the maritime industry both locally and internationally and had built capacities of maritime institutions and organisations within and outside Ghana.
These maritime professionals working in the maritime industry are contributing their quota to the economic development of Ghana and the sub-region.
He said a very important side benefit of encouraging Ghanaian youth to consider a career at sea was the possibility of weaning the youth from the current destructive activities like galamsey.
The MP said with an acute global shortage of seafarers, a well-organized international labour supply scheme locally would go a long way to achieving this elusive goal.
He said already the newly established Ratings of a Navigation Watch course being run by the RMU was receiving very good patronage and adequate funds to improve facilities on campus as well as expansion to satellite RMU campuses might prove very useful.
Dr Jerthro W. Brooks Jr., the Acting Vice-Chancellor of RMU, said the scheme was a project conceptualized and designed by students in consultation with Staff and management of the University.
He pledged the commitment of management to support the Scholarship committee in its daily operations.
Naa Momo Lartey, MP for Krowor, expressed the hope that the scheme would go a long way to help the University to improve its infrastructural facilities and create opportunities to support more students.
The MP pledged GH₵10,000 to the fund, while Meridian Logistics and Engineering presented GH₵50,000 with Staff supporting with GH₵28, 000.
GNA