DETERMINANTS OF WORK PERFORMANCE OF SEAFARERS IN NIGERIA

Introduction

The sea-borne transportation shoulders over 90 per cent of global trade and is booming in recent decades (UNCTAD, 2016). In Southeast Asia, the seafarers’ labor market of countries/regions such as Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan developed rapidly in the 1970s and thus had supported a quick development of their shipping industry in these countries. When the economies of these countries regions improved, young people did not join the seafaring career just same as what happened in the developed countries such as UK, Japan, France, etc. However, seafarers are always important to the shipping industry but are in serious shortage in the developed countries. In recent years, the increasing number of fleets around the world has made it difficult for shipping companies to find capable seafarers and. As a consequence, the major source of seafarers has shifted from developed countries to less developed countries, and then to underdeveloped countries (BIMCO/ISF, 2005; Glen, 2007; Lane, 2000).

In the recent decades, the shipping industries of Taiwan have been developing and expanding very fast. This has led to the shortage of seafarers become reality which in turn has pushed up the salary level of seafarers and forced the market players to hire seafarers from the “third world” countries. Most shipping companies have resorted to countries aboard to find enough seafarers to operate their ships. One may say that it is not hard to find seafarers but to find well-trained (skillful and experienced) seafarers and to keep them loyal to the company is the real challenges. Because the shipping companies of Taiwan have started hiring seafarers from the third-world countries 20 years ago, a lot of problems have arisen, recently?