THE DIRECTOR General of the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), Kwame Owusu, has disclosed that GMA is procuring about seven offshore patrol vessels among other sophisticated equipment as part of a conscious effort to adequately protect the country’s territorial waters against piracy.
According to him, the Authority will also be investing in drones to monitor the marine domain of Ghana.
Besides acquiring resources, the Director of GMA stressed that his outfit would be forming a taskforce that would manage the borders and anchorages.
He explained that the move is to augment the effort of the security agencies to deliver on their mandate to safeguard the territorial integrity of Ghana’s marine domain.
“Once our vessels arrive, we will be present everywhere to deal with issues including those oil deals at our anchorage,” the GMA boss indicated.
Mr. Kwame Owusu made these remarks in Tema last Monday when speaking to mark this year’s International Day of Seafarer which is celebrated on June 25 every year under the theme ‘Seafarer Wellbeing’. It was organized by the GMA in collaboration with the Ghana Maritime University (GMU).
Speaking about challenges confronting seafarers in the country, including remuneration, he said the Authority had set up a committee to investigate and come out with a roadmap on the activities of ship manning agencies who have adopted various formulas to shortchange the Ghanaian seafarer for the appropriate wages for their services.
According to him, GMA has also started implementing fully the international maritime instruments relating to seafarers, namely the IMO Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for seafarers (STCW) and the Maritime Labour Convention of the ILO.
The Director General revealed, “I am pleased to also inform you that the GMA will commence the issuance of biometric Discharge Books to Ghana seafarers by next month.
“Discussions are also currently ongoing with service providers to introduce an online verification system for our seafarers. It is expected that the system will eliminate the delays and address verification issues by the international shipping community who operate at different time zones.”
He concluded by stating that the GMA is in the process of finalizing a Cobotage regulations to be presented to Parliament for consideration and passage by end of this year in order to ensure that certain amount of jobs within the Ghanaian waters including the offshore are reserved for Ghanaian seafarers.
Meanwhile, some seafarers have called on the GMA and other relevant agencies to constantly organize training programmes for seafarers to boost their confidence level at work.
They further called on government to ensure adequate security on the country’s territorial waters for the safety of seafarers, explaining that “many are scared and emotionally traumatised upon hearing news of vessel sailing to these pirate prone areas”.
The seafarers also appeal to the GMA to ensure job security of seafarers in the country since they are not guaranteed job security.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema