85% crew members of NLNG Ships now Nigerians, says NSML MD, Ahmed

AbdulKadir Kere Ahmed is the Managing Director/CEO of NLNG Shipping and Marine Services Limited, a subsidiary of Nigeria LNG Limited. In this interview with PAUL OGBUOKIRI, he says NSML’s Maritime Centre of Excellence (MCOE) is the hub of energy logistics training in Africa. That was even as he argued that the company’s vision is to become a leading integrated and international maritime services company, supporting the growth and development of Nigeria’s maritime industry

We assumed the core business of NSML, is shipping. But you have gone into training, developing a training institution. So, what’s the reason for that?
Shipping business is a highly technical business. But the foundation of that business, it’s about competence. It’s about competent people. You can have ships; they will not move themselves. People ultimately run vessels and due to the nature of shipping, it’s important that those who are running vessels are competent. So, for us, training isn’t just simply a side activity. It is fundamental to who we are in the shipping business. That ability to attract, develop competent seafarers, who can manage vessels safely, reliably and efficiently is very, very important. So, that’s really the essence of it.
The Maritime Centre of Excellence (MCOE) isn’t just a training institute. It is a Marine Project Consultancy and Training outfit. So, it goes beyond just training because obviously, competence is a marketable skill, especially when it comes to shipping and the MCOE is that entity within NSML that is able to provide that service of course, being the ability to provide that service requires that you have competent individuals that are constantly being trained, kept abreast of new developments, so that they will continue to effectively and efficiently manage our assets as well.

Is it just for NSML or open to other shipping companies to access its services?
Yes! So, maybe just to give you a perspective and I’m sure you’ve had this before in terms of the evolution of NSML as an entity.
Why was it created in the first instance? Before NSML was created, before even NLNG, the first train was built, the NLNG shareholders acquired vessels and those vessels were manned and managed offshore. So, NSML was created with the sole purpose of domesticating international maritime skill sets, locally; and providing opportunities for Nigerians to participate in that sphere.
And when it was created, it was created purely from a manning point of view. So, it was NLNG Ship Manning Limited. Basically, that entity that employed the seafarers developed them and then deployed them onto vessels. And part of that evolution as we went along, the next step, of course, is to now take over the technical management of the assets, the vessels themselves; an activity which was done by foreign companies offshore. The same process of development went through where people were developed, capacities, competencies and capacities developed and once we got to that level, where we were comfortable, we now took over the technical management of the vessel and when we did that, NSML then evolved into NLNG Ship Management Limited.
As we went along, we then took over the technical management of the Bonny Terminal, and went further to set up the Maritime Centre of Excellence, which is a training consultancy and project management entity.
The entire business was centered towards providing services in-house but the evolution of the company entailed that once we are able to provide those services in-house, we were then be able to now branch out and be able to provide those services externally and that also really led us to looking at our vision, which is really centered around being a leading integrated and international maritime services company, supporting the growth and development of the Nigerian maritime industry and the best way we can do that is to reach out to the industry and work with the industry and provide services to the industry.
So, to cut a long story short, the activities of NSML isn’t just simply limited to Nigeria LNG. Of course, NLNG will always remain a core customer but our services and activities cut beyond NLNG energy and also, it is open to third parties within the Nigerian and African energy logistic business.

How much of this cost are we talking about here?
We were talking about NIMASA training people all over. Now, we are bringing this training home and now, you have to do this training in Nigeria. So, now, we bring the general cost down.
You know by domesticating the training, you cut 70 per cent of the cost because usually, the costs are usually your flights, your estacodes, your living expenses there. And even the training costs there are quite high. But if you can cut all of that out, you can then cut the training to at least, 30 per cent. In our own case, what we had even seen is that it has even created access for more people to train at once.
For example, if you have a budget to train a certain number of people, if you have to send them abroad, you can only do about five or so but if you domesticate the centre, you cut the cost by 30 per cent and then, you can train a lot more people. So, for us, it was more or less like a strategy and I think it was not just in our company as the MD pointed out.
We have other IOC’s or external bodies coming to us because they have seen exactly the same value and are also cutting their costs. So, it helps and then you get the same international standard.
So, what you’re talking about in shipping training is not static. It’s a continuous process. So, you can’t even just simply say, I’m putting a number today. Because certification, recertification, is a continuous process. And what it gives us is, for our people to continuously be trained and kept abreast of new developments.
As we said, the industry is evolving very fast. Changes are happening and what you knew yesterday may have changed today and you need to relearn and learn again. So, it’s really not putting financial value to it but it’s about the value or the qualitative value of having the ability to continuously train and develop your people.
Let me also make something very clear. We are not saying that MCOE will completely remove the need to train people overseas. No!
And part of that is what I’ve always indicated; that the shipping industry is an industry based on international standards.
What you do in one location is exactly what’s being done in another location. And sometimes, part of that training is about also working or being involved in certain training at different times, so that you see what they do and you validate what you equally do to be sure that you are doing it in accordance with the global standard. So, we still send people abroad to train. However, the MCOE provides the veritable institution locally.

The accreditation of MCOE courses will come with challenges. How are you prepared to handle them?
The element of accreditation is not just simply looking at your curricula. It’s about looking at your readiness, so when the MCA came to audit the MCOE, they were looking at the readiness of the institute to effectively and qualitatively provide those courses.
If they felt we were not ready; if we did not have the capacity, it doesn’t matter that the curriculum is good; they wouldn’t have accredited us. So, in terms of readiness, absolutely, we are. We wouldn’t have gone for accreditation if we were not ready. We are a training centre and we’ve identified those programmes, those courses that we have the capacity and the facility before we went for that accreditation.
And when we went for that accreditation, that was what they came to evaluate. Not just simply the curriculum but equally, the physical capacity to effectively provide those courses. So, the accreditation itself tells you that we’ve been adjudged by a stringent, independent auditor to be capable.
So, we are not concerned about whether it will bring challenges or we are not ready. We are ready and that was why we went for the accreditation. One of the things that we’ve always said is that shipping is an international profession and then you have to have international standards.
Before MCOE ever got off the ground, we sat for an entire year just developing the processes and the structures to actually get it to that gold standard level. MCOE’s accreditation is one of the highest standards you can ever see. We had support from a parent company and all of that to be able to actually achieve it. So, when it came to the audits and the audit itself was just a test of your own process of that course. And everybody that came to do the audit had said, this is absolutely fantastic, world class. And it was very easy for MCA to just come. They did a desktop review, and they had zero comments. And then, they had the auditor come over, and he was absolutely blown away. But then, there was a lot of work at the back end just to get to that kind of standard. There are a lot of investments, a lot of hard work, and it took us about two to three years to get all the documents in a row to actually get that accreditation. So, again, the accreditation is just a testament of our standard and nothing more.

Where do you see NSML in the next 10 years?
I remember when we started. I narrated to you the trajectory of where we are coming from. Because I always said, where you’re heading to, does not happen in a vacuum. It depends on where you are coming from. NSML, as an entity, started out as a ship manning entity. And we then evolved into a ship management entity.
And now, we are an integrated marine, shipping and marine services company, being able to provide a plethora of shipping and marine services. I don’t want us to end up assuming NSML is a training entity. No! Maritime training is an aspect of shipping and marine services. So, where do I see NSML in next 10 years? Basically, we are already on that path towards being an integrated shipping and marine services entity able to provide all the plethora of shipping and marine services, both offshore and internationally. Of course, our core business still remains the technical management of vessels. That is the foundation of our business and we’ll continue to do that but part of our growth and diversification is to go into Terminal Management, which we are already in. In terms of Marine Projects and Consultancy, which the MCOE is into, vessel design, construction supervision, all of those activities that we are into. We’re equally expanding into offshore support. Tugboat services-we already manage the marine crafts, marine services in Bonny and that’s also an activity that we intend to expand into and we’re going to grow beyond who we are today to be a full-fledged integrated shipping and marine services company, able to provide services, both onshore and offshore, and internationally.
What does that mean? Like I said, we are a shipping company. We are a marine services company but we’re also clear in terms of where we are playing. We are in the energy logistic business. We’re not in a container business. Our sole purpose is to enable those in the energy business to move products from one location to the other and that’s what we’ll continue to do and the whole essence of it, is that we will grow to become the number one. We are the number one LNG, technical shipping and marine services company in Nigeria today but the idea is to grow beyond Nigeria into West Africa, across Africa and internationally. And we are on that path already.

Can your vessel compete with international flags?
Absolutely. We are already competing internationally. We’re not just simply competing on cost but also completion, on quality and competence.

Are you ready to attract foreigners to train at your centre?
So, first thing first is a Nigerian phrase. Charity begins where? At home! Exactly! We’re not saying we’re not open to foreigners coming to train but the idea is let’s again go back to that original purpose which is domestication of those skill sets right? There’s definitely no reason why foreigners cannot come.
We’re in discussions but ultimately the bulk of our spaces will be for those who require it the most, which for us, we believe, are Nigerians. I’ll give you a typical example. We have a Nigerianization objective, which we’ve attained, as 85 per cent of the seafarers on our vessel today are Nigerians. And it was a deliberate effort on our part to say, we’re a Nigerian company and in line with our purpose, we want to domesticate and you cannot domesticate by simply importing foreigners to do the job. So, it’s about developing people locally and giving them the opportunity and that’s why 85 per cent of our seafarers today are Nigerians, from the highest to the lowest level.
Mind you, we have 100 per cent capability. Five per cent of foreigners are just to allow cross-fertilization of ideas by bringing some foreigners into our operations.