The Regional Maritime Academy (RMA), Accra came to being in May 1983,
when the Ministerial conference of West and Central African states on Maritime Transport
(MINCONMAR), comprising of 25 members states, took over the running of the then Ghana
Nautical College which had existed since 1958.
The Regional Maritime Academy, Accra was regionalised for Anglophone
West African countries and the participating countries are Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana,
Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The Francophone West and Central African countries have their
Academy in Abidjan.
One of the objectives of the Academy is to train pilots and personnel
manning inland watercraft including fishing boats. Unfortunately for the past three
decades, (1960~l990) more emphasis was laid on the training of deep sea personnel to the
detriment of training of small craft operators.
Recent tragic accidents with the subsequent loss of lives on our inland
waters in the sub- region has brought the awareness to the participating Governments to
call on the RMA to re-look at the training of these personnel manning these inland
watercrafts.
3.0 THE NEED TO TRAIN OPERATORS OF INLAND WATER CRAFT AND PILOTS.
1. Governments are shifting emphasis from road transportation to river
transportation because it is cheaper, so more passengers and goods are being carried on
inland waters. See Table I
2. The carriage of oil and hazardous cargoes on inland waters is also
on the increase, this means the crew transporting these cargoes should be well trained in
pollution prevention and safety even more as these rivers are used for drinking and for
fishing.
3. More sophisticated and expensive crafts are being purchased and the
crew operating this expensive equipment should be well trained.
4. The inland water transport forms a very important link in
multi-modal transport chain and if the deep sea phase has well trained crew and inland
water phase has very little or no training at all then the chain is bound to snap at the
weaker link.
5. Most ports are now serving as transhipment ports for land-locked
countries and transporting of goods on inland waters have increased in recent years.
6. In recent years it has become very difficult to recruit master
mariners to train as pilots, where they are available they tend to take other shore jobs.
Most of the pilots found
