Rigworld Training Centre (RTC), an indigenous Ghanaian company, has presented an ambulance to the sickbay of the Regional Maritime University (RMU).

The ambulance, which is estimated to cost over €20,000 (approximately GHS122,470) is fully fitted with modern state of the art equipment and is said to be the first-ever to be dedicated to the Sick Bay within the RMU in its 60 years of existence.

The donation of the ambulance comes as a big relief to the Maritime University community as it will help deal with emergencies in a timely manner.

Speaking at a presentation ceremony on Wednesday at the campus of the RMU in Nungua, near Accra, Steve Taylor, Managing Director for Rigworld Training Centre said the donation was done to support the RMU in the development of its programmes.

He said, “This is not necessarily a celebration for Rigworld as much as it is a celebration to RMU. It gives us an opportunity to help support them in the development of their programmes, in addition to that it helps them to increase their capabilities in terms of support for their safety and their emergency response so, it is a celebration for RMU in as much as it is a celebration for Rigworld.”

Rigworld Training Centre also announced plans were far advanced to construct a training centre similar to its centre in Takoradi in the premises of RMU.

“What is happening is that we currently have a 10year memorandum of understanding with RMU after which we have signed a collaborative agreement in which the parties have made certain pledges to the other.  RMU have allocated two acres of land to us to replicate the training facility we have in Takoradi here on their campus to cater for the Accra market. The facility shall also serve all the member states of RMU. Aside being a hundred percentage owned Ghanaian company; we have the financial muscles and intend to invest some huge sums putting up that ultra-modern training facility,” Kwame Nyampong, a member of the legal team of Rigworld Group disclosed.

Vice Dean of the RMU, Prof. Elvis Nyarko expressed delight at the gesture by the RTC saying the ambulance will go a long way to prevent the unconventional ways they used in times past to convey their sick and injured persons to nearby health facilities.

He said, “We want to on behalf of the Board of Governors, Management, Staff and Students and the entire university will like to thank Rigworld Training Centre for this beautiful gift. Actually, we’ve needed it for so long. Since this Sick Bay has been here for close to 60 years, this is the first time in our history that we are actually having an ambulance dedicated to the Sick Bay.

The kind of training that we do; the Cadet training and our offshore safety programmes, there are times that we have to train participants on emergency response and even during our training programmes, when the Cadet gets hurt or the students becomes sick or staff have emergencies, we always have used very unconventional means to be able to convey our patients to nearby hospitals so, this is a great break through for us and we are very excited about it.”

Prof. Nyarko was optimistic the relationship between the two institutions in developing capacity in offshore training will continue to grow.

“We want to thank Rigworld so much, it shows clearly how well they are committed to developing capacity in the offshore training milieu which we all play around.

Interestingly, we have a collaboration with them and I believe this is the first step, a big first step towards our collaboration to work together to develop capacity to provide emergency response and training to Ghanaians and to other members of the West African state and hopefully we can take it further and do much better with the relationship that we have developed. We are very grateful and we thank you very much for this gesture,” the RMU Vice Dean said.

Rigworld Training Centre recently signed an accreditation partnership with the Regional Maritime University to train personnel on International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations.

Under the accreditation partnership, the two parties will collaborate for the training of people on IMO mandatory short courses hence issue two certificates; one jointly signed by RTC and RMU and secondly solely singed by the Ghana Maritime Authority, certificate of competency from Ghana Maritime Authority.

Among some of the course that would be offered as part of the training programme include Elementary First Aid, Personal Survival Techniques, Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities as well as Basic Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting.

Others are International Ship and Port Facility, Security Code, Oil/Chemical Tanker Familiarization, Efficient Deck Hand, Lifeboat, Proficiency in Survival Craft Rescue Boat, Radar/ARPA Simulator Training as well as International Safety Management.

Rigworld Training Centre, founded in 2017 is a world-class oil and gas accredited safety training centre. It excels in providing a range of client-focused safety training services and products to the extractive industries.

RTC has been working in partnership with international organizations like Maersk Training, Hydrasun and DNV-GL.

The RMU is an international institution owned by the Republics of Cameroon, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone under the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA).

The overall objective of the RMU is to promote regional co-operation in the maritime industry focusing on the training to ensure sustained growth and development in the industry.