The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) yesterday alerted the public on the activities of yet-to-be-identified fraudsters who, it claimed, are giving misleading and fraudulent information to unsuspecting members of the public in the guise of being agents commissioned to sell the Nigeria Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) prequalification forms or facilitate their admission into the NSDP scholarship scheme.
In a notice it published yesterday, NIMASA dissociated itself from the activities of those it called “unscrupulous elements” that have been leveraging on the success of the programme by selling NSDP prequalification forms.
“Consequent upon this unwholesome development, the Agency hereby notifies the public of the situation to forestall any person falling-prey to the nefarious activities of these fraudsters.
“The NSDP is a scholarship initiative of the Agency to build indigenous human capacity in the maritime sector.
“Members of the public are hereby advised to desist from patronizing such individuals or groups of people as the Agency does not sell prequalification forms to students intending to benefit from the scheme nor ask for facilitation fees before being admitted into the NSDP programme,” NIMASA stated in the notice.
It advised members of the public to direct relevant enquiries to its website on it public relations unit.
The Nigerian Seafarers’ Development Programme is an intervention designed to address the short to medium term manpower requirements of the maritime sector with a view to creating a large pool of Nigerian seafarers to meet local demand and also contribute to the manpower needs of international shipping.
The objective also includes creating a niche for Nigeria as a leading seafarer supplying nation in Africa.
So far, over 1,500 Nigerians have benefitted from the scheme.
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