20 African nations approve formation of a regional maritime university

Captain of Lamu Shipping line Musa Bakari with Engineering cadets, Lulu Chilumo and Fatuma Ridhwani at Amu 1 Cargo ship in Mombasa Port. [File, Standard]

More than 20 countries from Eastern, Southern and Northern Africa have supported plans to establish the region's first maritime university.

The initiative is aimed at pooling scarce resources, harmonising training standards and creating a world-class centre of excellence for Africa's shipping industry.

The proposal, currently at the validation stage following a feasibility study, seeks to address what maritime leaders describe as decades of fragmented investment in maritime education.

This neglect has left the region without a unified institution capable of producing globally competitive seafarers and maritime professionals.

Once validated, the recommendations will be presented to the Assembly of Ministers for adoption before implementation begins.

"This initiative is coming to consolidate our efforts in Eastern and Southern Africa so that we can produce a centre of excellence,” said Kassim Mpaata, the secretary general of the Maritime Organisation for Eastern, Southern and Northern Africa (MOESNA).

“We can come up with a place which we can call our own as regional states, and this will help us in consolidating resources, expertise and harmonising our maritime training culture.”

Unlike West Africa, which has two regional maritime universities serving the Anglophone and Francophone countries, and North Africa, which hosts a regional maritime university in Egypt, Eastern and Southern Africa currently lacks a common institution for maritime education.

State Department for Shipping and Maritime Affairs Principal Secretary, Aden Millah, said the success of the proposed institution will depend on sustained investment by member states, arguing that strengthening maritime education is critical to unlocking Africa's vast blue economy potential.

Millah noted that while about 90 per cent of global trade is transported by sea, African countries continue to rely heavily on foreign-owned shipping lines, leaving them vulnerable to high freight charges and limited control over maritime logistics.

"As African states, we are really disadvantaged on matters of global maritime trade," Millah said. "Most of the large shipping lines belong to Europeans, Chinese and others, and they dictate freight charges that eventually determine the prices of goods in our countries."

Millah said the proposed university should be viewed as part of a broader regional strategy that includes developing African shipping lines, shipbuilding capacity and internationally recognised maritime training programmes.

"The employment opportunities in the maritime space are huge," he said. "We want to prepare our people to have the right skills to take advantage of them."

He revealed that Kenya has already secured opportunities for 1,000 seafarers to work aboard Norwegian vessels, while discussions are ongoing to place 2,000 Kenyans on South Korean ships. Kenya has also signed a labour agreement with Saudi Arabia to facilitate maritime employment.

However, he said, such opportunities can only be fully exploited if African seafarers obtain internationally recognised Certificates of Competency (CoCs).

"The payment is really good, but there are a lot of nitty-gritties that need to be done. This discussion about a regional maritime institution is informed by that need," Millah said.

The absence of a regional university is said to have resulted in duplication of investments, varying training standards, and limited access to expensive facilities such as ship simulators, specialised laboratories and sea-training vessels.

One of the major challenges the institution hopes to address is the shortage of sea-time opportunities for cadets a mandatory requirement before seafarers can obtain certificates of competency.

To overcome this, regional states are considering jointly acquiring maritime training vessels that would serve both educational and commercial purposes by transporting cargo between African ports while providing practical experience for students.

"Maritime education is an expensive venture," Mpata said. “We need simulators, we need vessels to enable our cadets to access sea time, and we need professionals of the highest standards. Unfortunately, our efforts and resources are dispersed and fragmented."