Maritime Institute to build Sh7bn college in Mkuranga

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will soon start to produce more experts on oil and gas, mainly Safety and Saviour professions, after the Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI) announced a plan to construct an offshore Safety and Saviour technical college in Mkuranga District.

The Sh7 billion college that is dubbed Offshore Safety and Saviour Technical College (OSSTC,) will comprise several facilities such as swimming pools, a centre for logistics and a workshop with modern equipment.

DMI principal Erick Massami revealed to The Citizen on Monday that experts from Ardhi University were currently designing a master plan document to guide them on the construction process. He noted that the move to construct the college was to enable production of local experts who would be able to compete in both the local and international labour markets.

“The future economy of this country will be potentially in the marine. The discovery of oil and gas in the ocean means that we need to create employment for locals and ensure they benefit from natural resources that God has given us,” he said.

Mr Massami added that with the discovery of oil and gas in Songosongo and other parts of the country they wanted to prepare more experts in the Energy sector unlike in the past when even experts to conduct research in the gas sector were hired from Egypt.

“We expect by April, this year, the master plan will be finalized. As soon as we get the document we would seek funds from the government and other development partners like the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to help us with the funds to execute the project,” he said.

“We conducted a cost analysis budget in 2014 to determine how much it would cost to construct a modern college and came up with Sh7 billion. However, the budget might change because the analysis was conducted a long time ago,” he said.