INTRODUCTION

Fhas been and still is the backbone of the intercontinental trade accounting for up to ninety percent of the movement of goods across the various continents mainly through shipping. Shipping is the hallmark of maritime activity; the vein and arteries of maritime trade responsible for moving cargoes, seafarers, leading to ports development and opening of many opportunities generated by activities of men on and offshore.

The African continent and some of the other continents, America, Europe and Asia are surrounded by water. The massive waters namely the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea provide the linkages and boundless scopes, which over centuries have offered opportunities to seafarers, merchants and explorers. It is this nexus of global maritime ecosystem that, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has contributed to 90 per cent of world trade through the use of over 500,000 merchant ships involving 1.5 million seafarers in over one hundred and fifty nations. (IMO report2016).

With the over seventy percent coast line providing extensive area for ports operations from Cairo to Cape Coast; the Mediterranean stretch with Cairo as the hub in the north, the Gulf of Guinea in the west, the Cape Coast in the south and Mombasa in the eastern stretch present massive maritime assets……