The Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standards Department of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) yesterday launched an online portal for the verification of Certificates of Competency (CoC) of Nigerian Seafarers.
The portal will help shipping companies, ship owners and other stakeholders in the industry to verify the authenticity of certificates presented to the stakeholders by the seafarers.
According to the Director, Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standard, Engr. Vincent Udoye, Nigeria is among the privileged few countries that have achieved the feat of launching portals for the verification of seafarers CoC.
He said: “If you check the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) website, Nigeria is among the privilege few to have achieved this feat of online verification.”
He however said that the era of writing letters or waiting for response from the agency to ask about the details of seafarers is gone as the portal will give needed answers to questions asked about seafarers.
The representative Fernside Consultants, the consultancy firm that developed the portal for the agency, one Mr. Segun, gave the web address as www.nimasaseafarers.com.
“On this portal, the medical certificate of the seafarers can be gotten to know the authenticity because seafarers do provide fake medical certificate. Certificate number, picture, date of birth, limitation date and some other relevant information about the seafarers can be obtained online. The portal also has biometric and the certificate that is so verified can be printed out if the need arises,” he said.
The Executive Director, Maritime Safety and Shipping Development of NIMASA, Capt. Ezekiel Agaba, allayed the fear of stakeholders on hackers who may want to infiltrate the site saying that adequate protection has been built into the it.
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