The Certified Institute of Shipping of Nigeria last weekend commissioned its Dr. Bamanga Tukur Resource Centre Phase 1.
This even as the institution matriculated about 450 students admitted through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its 2013 session.
According to the CIS Rector, Rev. Alex Favour Okwuashi, the resource centre was named after Tukur, who is the Patron of the institute, for his numerous contributions to the maritime industry and the nation at large.
Okwuashi stated that the Dr. Bamanga Tukur Resource Centre Phase 1, which according to him, is one of a kind in Africa, was built for “special specific maritime – transport training.”
He urged the government to utilise the resource centre, rather than send Nigerians to other countries for training, even as he called on stakeholders in the industry to support and appreciate the efforts of the institute.
“There is no place in Africa now, except somebody will prove me wrong where we have such a resource centre and we have to take advantage of it. The Ministry of Transport, NIMASA and other agencies that send Nigerians out of the country and extend our scarce foreign exchange, the resource centre is the place to come, to train capacity. All that has to do with maritime transport we have the human capacity to handle it and a lot of equipments have also been put in place. We have a visual library, a marine engineering workshop and laboratory that a lot of the trainees will use….That is why we are calling on every stakeholder, the government and private participants, to come and see what we have here,” Okwuashi stated.
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