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By Steve Agbota
Preparations for the inaugural Maritime and Offshore Award (The OMIS) has taking a higher gear with the unveiling of an international panel of judges.
The panel of judges include; the Pioneer Director-General of Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS), Dr. Ify Akerele; laison Officer with the Regional Centre for Maritime Safety and Security in West Africa (CRESMAO), Colonel Barthélemy Blédé; an Egyptian subsea Integrity Engineer with more than 20 years’ experience Mohamed Tayel; and a Greek Naval Architect and ISPS Lead Auditor, Christos Michalopoulos.
Chief Executive Officer of the The OMIS Award, Femi Da-silva disclosed this in a statement released at the weekend in Lagos. He said that the four-member panel comprising maritime experts from Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt and Greece was to increase the credibility of the award and ensure only the most qualified nominees win.
Da-silva explained that the award was conceived to recognise and celebrate excellence in the maritime and offshore sector.
While urging stakeholders to nominate deserving maritime practitioners and organisations in the 15 categories open for nomination on the award website, the OMIS Award boss equally announced a two-week extension to the nomination deadline for the award.
He said that the organising committee deemed an extension necessary to give ample time for more nominees to join the already swelling nomination pool.
“More than 300 nominations have been received so far since the nomination process commenced in the first week of March on www.theomisaward.com. However, we have been getting calls and messages from many stakeholders requesting an extension. Many of those that reached us said that they learnt about the award late and would like more time to be able to nominate,” he said.
Meanwhile, he noted that the organizing committee deliberated on the requests and thought it wise to extend nomination by two weeks. Consequently, nomination now ends on April 15th.
