Marine Engineers, Others Target Dangote Refinery To Solve Cadet Seatime Challenge

The Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) has said that the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals can help the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, solve the challenges of seatime for cadets in the maritime Sector.

This was even as the former Fleet Manager of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), Capt. Ambali Yusuf, said the government should take the step of approaching Dangote refinery for seatime for Cadets seriously.

Speaking on Tuesday at the 3rd quarter 2025 Citizens and Stakeholders’ Engagement, titled, “Implementation of the National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy for Onboard Training of Nigerian Merchant Navy Cadets and the Critical Needs of Maritine Academy of Nigeria,” the President of AMES, Engr. Issac Obadan, said the Academy can get a lot of ships to absorb the cadets for seatime training.

According to him, Dangote vessels can absorb more than 50% of the cadets for training, thereby solving the nation’s cadetship training challenges.

“Nobody is talking about the importance of Dangote refinery. If you know the extent of shipping involvement in Dangote refinery in crude oil, hydrocarbon, and even refined products, if we can develop our shipping fleets around that refinery, we can get a lot of ships absorbing the cadets we are talking about.

“All we need as a people or as a government is to strengthen the training program and bring it down to the refinery so that we can put our students, our cadets on the vessels operating into the refinery.

Such a training on Dangote refinery vessels that carry this carbon in and out can function on these ships.

“Put the cadets there. You can get this done through the lifting contracts. If you cannot absorb our Cadets, the contract won’t be renewed; we have done it before, and we can still do it again. I tell you, Dangote Vessels alone can absorb more than 50% of the cadets we are talking about. We are talking of crude oil carriers, massive vessels, and refineries.”

Engr. Obadan, however, called for political will on the side of the federal government to achieve the initiative, saying the government has done it before and can still do it again.

“The immediate past Rector, Comm. Emmanuel Effedua, had partnerships with other shipping companies to develop a partnership for training of Cadets, the NNPC of today also had a partnership training program with the International Oil Companies (IOCs). The Elder Dempster which they had a partnership training program with and that can be updated.

“What we need is a political will of the ministry or the government to engage these corporate entities, whether local or international, it can still be done. Establishing a partnership, a training partnership with them,” he stated.

Also speaking is the former Fleet Manager of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), Capt. Ambali Yusuf said the government should take the step of approaching Dangote refinery for seatime for Cadets seriously.

According to him, the government can explore other options such as foreign and local shipping Companies operating in Nigeria.

“We can approach Dangote Refinery to help train our cadets onboard vessels lifting refined petroleum products from the terminals, to give them opportunities to go to sea, to learn so that they can be responsible and useful to the nation’s economy,” he stated.