New Maritime Training Facility Launched in Angola

On August 27th the Centro De Formação Maritima De Angola (CFMA) was officially launched by top management from Sonangol, the Angolan public sector energy company and the Stena Group of Sweden. The CFMA is a world class maritime training facility, the first of its kind in Angola and the most modern maritime campus in Africa.

The campus will be an internationally recognized center of excellence, linked through Stena to leading maritime institutions in Europe and Asia in order to deliver marine education, training and certification to Angolan seafarers in order to satisfy Sonangol’s and Angola’s future requirements for marine expertise.

The maritime campus is built on an imposing green field site close to Sumbe on the coast approximately 360 km south of Luanda and is completely self-contained. Up to 200 students per year will have the opportunity to study at the center, starting with the first year in Angola and the second year in Glasgow.

Stena and Sonangol are already co-operating through the Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool, which since 2005 operates a pool of large crude oil tankers (today 23 vessels) from four offices worldwide. In 2008 a second partnership was formed between Stena and Sonangol Shipping to design, create and build the center, which will be managed from the outset by the maritime faculty of City of Glasgow College, one of Europe’s foremost maritime training institutions.

"The development of the Maritime Training Centre has been a natural step for Stena Bulk in our close relation with Sonangol where education has been one of the fundamental questions since we started our Joint Venture through Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool," says Erik Hånell, CEO Stena Bulk. “The investment in the project by Sonangol and Stena will ensure the long term success of the project, and will also bring added value by employing people from the surrounding area, and therefore contribute to the local economy and infrastructure to the benefit of the life condition of the local community,” adds Hånell.

Northern Marine Management, a Glasgow based wholly owned Stena Company, led the project management team responsible for the design, build and pre-operational phase of the CFMA, and delivery of the state of the art Campus. City of Glasgow College will ensure compliance with the highest maritime academic standards and lead CFMA to develop Angolan STCW certification and support IMO ‘white list’ accreditation.