Abdulkadir Ahmed, Managing Director of Nigeria LNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), a wholly owned subsidiary of NLNG speaks on his company’s immediate goal for growth and expansion.
Speaking at Bonny Island shortly after overseeing an award ceremony to celebrate outstanding employees, government agencies and partners, the MD described 2024 .
The company provides fleet and terminal management, crew services, consultancy and marine training while also providing crew management services to vessel owners, vessel managers and charterers. It is noted for attracting the brightest professionals across all cadres
With over 800 seafarers employed in NSML,the company ranks as Nigeria’s number one employer of indigenous seamen, strategically pursuing it’s Nigerianisation policy and retaining it’s international and multicultural outlook as an entity with global focus
Ahmed talked about the company’s Maritime Centre of Excellence (MCOE) and how it is reshaping the thrust of maritime training in Nigeria with advanced tech enabled facilities, world class instructors and internationally recognised certification.
Excerpts:
You talked about 2024 being your most profitable year since NSML started operating. Could you shed more light on this
Let me be very clear. For us, what we do revolves around operational excellence and safety. As a company, we also want to create value which is why we say part of our strategic imperative is to be safe, to be reliable, and to create value.
Last year, we had a very good year when it comes to safety. Like we always say, everything counts. If somebody comes to work and doesn’t go back hurt or gets injured, that counts a lot for us. Last year, we were able to exceed 13 million man-hours without lost time injury (LTI) in all aspects of our operations on the vessel, at the terminal and in our offices and that’s something we’re very proud about of. It shows that our people recognise the value of safety and our processes and our systems are strong.
Most importantly, it actually shows that our people take safety personally, and they’re responsible for their safety at work. It is something that we want to continue to push the boundaries of that because perfect HSE isn’t just an aspiration for us. It is a sustainable reality.
When we say we want to have zero harm to people, zero harm to the environment, it’s not just simply saying we are aspiring to do that. It’s something we are living by and it’s something we are absolutely ensuring at every stage. That is our core focus. So, safety is quite critical.
Another part of it is, of course, we manage assets. Whether it’s a terminal or it’s a vessel. The value of our management of those assets is in ensuring that those assets are reliable and available. Last year, again, we pushed the boundaries of reliability and availability.
There was no time where our vessels required environmental service and there’s no time when the terminal was not available to load cargoes. The other part, which is to create value. Again, it’s not just about the money. The value is what we aim to be within the context of all our stakeholders. Our relationship with our stakeholders , shareholders and our community and what we do on a day-to-day basis. We are committed to push the boundary. As far as we are concerned, maritime excellence is achievable in Nigeria and we are contributing to that. It’s something that will benefit the country.
Are you shopping for more vessels? How many are you shopping for and what is the number you have presently?
For us in NSML, we are technical managers of vessels. Do we own vessels? No. We manage other people’s vessels. We currently have 11 LNG vessels under management and we have 2 LPG vessels under management. The whole essence of our growth and expansion, is to have more vessels under our management and to even diversify the vessels under management just beyond the regular gas vessels into other kinds of vessels as well.
We are in discussion with multiple parties. We are happy that one of the entities that we manage their vessels , the Alfred Temile Development Company, is also seeking to expand. For us , as a company, that’s the kind of service and that’s the kind of value we want to create. That we participate with owners, with charters to support their aspiration in terms of their needs, and we manage their assets as efficiently as possible.
Can we just look at your projections for 2025? What are your plans? What are your visions? What are you working on?
If we go by the trajectory of growth, it is first things first. Like I said, really to move to that stage where as a company, our services and our operations are international standards. When it comes to shipping and marine, there’s nothing like local standards. Shipping and marine operation are international . You can’t cut corners, and we do not cut corners.That’s where we are starting from.
The second aspect of it, of course, is as a company, while we were set up as an in-house technical service provider the aspiration has always been to be more within Nigeria LNG, but equally to do more within the broader Nigerian and African shipping maritime sector and that’s what we’ve been trying to do. Over the last five years, we have doubled on our profit.
Over the last five years, we have expanded our operations, and it is our expectation this year that we will continue to expand. Both in terms of the number of assets on the management, and equally in terms of what we do, because we’re not just simply managing assets. We’re equally a service provider when it comes to training. We’re equally a service provider when it comes to marine projects and consultancy. We equally have added business advisory services into our services. We’re providing maritime business advisory services to multiple entities within the country.
We’re looking to do more, not just within Nigeria LNG, but within the Nigerian and African markets, and we’re well positioned for that, because ultimately, it’s about the skill set that we bring on board. If you remember, I’ve always said when we talk about the purpose of the creation of NSML as an entity, it’s about domesticating international maritime skill sets in Nigeria, so that Nigerians can benefit maximally through the initiative.What we’ve shown over the years is that Nigerians have the capacity and the ability to compete with the best internationally. That is the essence of NSML.
Can you share with us the names of some of the clients?
I don’t want to be too specific, if you don’t mind because they may not want me to share their names. Primarily our core customer is Nigeria LNG. We were set up to provide advanced, excellent maritime services to Nigeria LNG.That’s our core customer, what we call our anchor customer. We all recognise that Nigeria LNG today is an internationally competitive LNG supplier, producer and supplier of which we have been in the forefront of enabling that, it is those capacities that we’ve built over the years that we’re now expanding to provide the same kind of service to anybody out there who desires qualitative, advanced, technical maritime services.
But beyond that, it’s also around building capacity, which can be seen in NCOE. Because NCOE was set up to ensure that we have a center that can train seafarers in advanced seafaring skill sets, and that is the foundation of the industry, competency.
When we were at the NCOE, during the briefing, the visuals, we were told that 85% of the workforce of NSML are Nigerians. I mean, is it a top echelon, midway echelon, can you specify?
It is across the business.Let me give you a typical example. When we say 85%, we mean that 85% of our seafarers are Nigerians. In the office, the management and the people in the office, whether at the terminal, it’s in NCOE, in the office in Port Harbour, at the leadership level or across the entire business, 100% of the people in the office are Nigerians. We can do a 100. When we say 85%, it’s not that we set 85% as a target. We have the capacity to do 100%. There’s a reason why we’re not doing 100 and that reason is simple. We are an international shipping company.
Having multiple cultures and multiple people within helps also in developing this excellence that we’re talking about today. That’s the whole reason why we say 85%, but with the capacity for 100.
