NPA inaugurates Dockyard Training School in Lagos
By Chiazo Ogbolu

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Wednesday inaugurated its Dockyard Training School in Apapa, Lagos as part of institutes continuous learning culture for its employees.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the facility was inaugurated by r Mohammed Bello-Koko, Managing Director, NPA.

He noted that learning constitutes a critical success factor in actualising the NPAs strategic intent of becoming the maritime logistics hub for sustainable port services in Africa

According to Bello-Koko, inaugurating a modern technical training facility of this nature is germane to the authority and a testament of its resolve to institute continuous learning as a culture.

As most of us are aware, having in place a robust talent pool is a necessary precondition for operating efficiently in the fiercely competitive terrain that port business is.

Consistently upskilling and reskilling our employees on whom we place a very high premium is our overriding objective as a management team.

Also, our readiness to position them to be best in class, is at the core of what this training school sets to achieve, he said.

The NPA boss said that the complex had the capacity of training 380 persons per time as it consists of a lecture theatre with seating capacity of 73, a large hall with seating capacity of 112, a mini hall with seating capacity of 50 and another with 27.

He said that the facility also contains six simulation class rooms that seats 16 persons each, a fully automated library, a computer training hall, a canteen seating capacity for 120 persons and a hostel with 30-bed capacity.

Bello-Koko said that the decision to invest so much in the facility took cognisance of its former employees, some of whom although retired are actually not tired.

He said that they intend to tap into their wealth of experience and institutional knowledge by inviting them as resource persons to train upcoming employees.

Processes are also in the works to partner with the World Maritime University, Nigerian Navy Hydrography Department, Nigerian Institute of Marine and Oceanography Research, University of Lagos and other research and learning institutions in the area of curriculum development and capacity building.

It will be pertinent to mention that work is at advanced stages to transform our Riggers Workshop to a Marine and Seamanship Workshop.

This will be deployed for training in the area of Seamanship Practical, Radio/Signal, Marine Engine/Auxiliaries, Buoyage Practical, Mooring and other Marine related competencies which are increasingly in demand not just in-house but indeed in our Industry.

These trainings will significantly help to insulate us and our stakeholders from the grave risk of talent deficit, he said.

He recommended the facility for patronage by sister agencies in the maritime sector and other industry players who were desirous of a best-in-class training platform for their employees.

He said that the activation of the training facility was timely, coming at a time when series of efforts geared towards making our ports more competitive and attractive of greater vessel traffic were beginning to crystalise.

This inauguration is also a reminder that our drive towards attaining the compliance status for Quality Management System (ISO 9001), Environment Management System (ISO 14001) as well as Occupational Health