Employment Clinic Boss to Create Job Opportunities for 5,000 Graduates in the Maritime Industry

Joy Mmereole Okoli

Maritime Expert, Ronke Kosoko The Chief Executive Officer of Employment Clinic unveiled one of her pet projects, a Maritime Conversion Programme (MCP), designed to introduce Nigerian graduates to the maritime sector thereby improving their career prospects.

Ms Kosoko said this at a press brief held at Morlap House in Apapa, Lagos on Wednesday. She said the scheme, in its first phase, would take care of 5,000 graduates within Lagos, and with plans to ensure that the phase starts. Also said it has the backing of the federal government.

She said under the scheme, if they had fifty young people interested in career in maritime, media and communication, they would join them with people that had gotten the experience.

Kosoko said they would also go through three to four months training courses and at the end, making them not to be jobless.

Ms Ronke also congratulated Nigerian President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu for emerging victorious in the 2023 Gubernatorial elections held on Feb. 25 and March 18, respectively.

She has urged the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to ensure the appointment of experts for the turnaround of the maritime industry. Also to help address the many problems that affects the growth of the industry which is is one of the reasons for unemployment for the youth in the country.

"The entire industry is looking forward to Sen. Bola Tinubu and Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to revive the maritime industry for the good of the country.

“This is because there has been dichotomy in the state and federal. Now, we want to ensure that the center aligns at some levels because if Lagos works, Apapa for instance is affecting the whole nation, if it works, if Lekki works, other states will work.

“That is the reason why some people look forward to Tinubu as president, it’s because of the work he did in Lagos. If he can unplug Lagos from the string of the Federal Government, we can do it in our state,” she said.

She said that since 2010, in different administrations, a whole lot had happened in the maritime industry.

“Many of the decisions about why things are not working in Apapa was due to government.

“Lagos, being a literal state with three port cities, cannot be ignored. First and foremost, we laid a foundation which is to connect the dots at the governmental level.

“The second is employment and that was what pushed us into the Project One Million Jobs which had a link with government.

“The employment part of the industry is a segment, likewise infrastructure, policy, appointment issues are segments and if they are not fused together, the maritime economy is not going anywhere.

“So, the president elect and the governor of Lagos State should understand that there is need to pay attention to maritime economy,” she said.

She noted that the Project One Million Jobs was launched in 2013, they worked with the Chamber of Shipping; 2014 they worked with cadets; the 2015 was election and then the maritime industry started declining.

She said that the project had not gone off the raider and had the Minister of Transportation backing the project.

“We have been mandated to interface with the seven agencies under the Ministry of Transportation, and have spoken to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shippers’Council (NSC) and others.

“We do not want to go on the journey alone, we need the media along and that is part of the reason we are having this session,” she said.