Training of staff remains a priority for Ignazio Messina Mozambique which is continuing to invest in its people.Captain Jayendra Misra, a director with Ignazio Messina Mozambique, agents for Ignazio Messina Italy, says it is an ongoing process that allows the company to improve efficiencies and meet client demands.“Upskilling of employees is not just about being able to do jobs more proficiently, but also to future-proof talent pipelines. At Messina we see training as an investment,” said Misra. “By increasing our knowledge and skills, we not only improve our technical output but also improve the safety of our operations.”Misra, who has been working in Mozambique for more than a decade, said the importance of skills transfer was another important element the company needed to consider. “As a business, we are committed to transferring skills to our local employees. In turn, it also allows us to increase local capacity and improve our operational ef f icienc y.”He said training had become even more important over the past few years as the global pandemic hit. “2020 was a disaster, but everyone was in the same boat. Volumes were down significantly and businesses were all under pressure. Despite this, training and skills development remained a priority for us,” he said.And he believes training and skills development is paying off, with the turnaround times of vessels having improved dramatically. “Our operations are specialised and complex. We have seen vessels going from three days in port to only 24 hours, simply by having the right people on the ground that are well trained. Also, in our industry, if operations on a vessel are not done correctly the consequences are dire.”Asked about 2021, Misra said revenue was up but volumes were still down, while 2022 has seen a slight rise in volumes.“We handled a lot of transit cargo, mainly from South Africa and Swaziland, as well as imports,” he said. “Our outlook is far more positive at the moment and ongoing developments in Mozambique bode well for the future.”These include efforts to develop the Maputo Corridor and investments in rail solutions for cargo. “There is also a focus on growing trade to Zimbabwe, and we recently did a very successful exercise on this route. We are putting more focus on this with the goal of growing volumes.” He said with volumes on the rise the outlook was that this would continue. “We believe volumes will continue to go up, despite the ongoing challenges in the global shipping sector – such as the congestion being experienced, the shortage of containers, and the high freight rates.”Misra said due to these ongoing challenges, Messina had opted to pull two vessels from the Mozambique service to aid its operations elsewhere in the world. “This month we will have two vessels calling and hope to add a third vessel back on the route soonest.”He said across industries businesses were working hard to bring back stability and certainty to shipping. “There is a lot of collaboration happening to address challenges as a collective. In Mozambique, we have established a small shipping line association with the hope of finding solutions to common challenges and issues.”One of the challenges they were addressing, said Misra, was the legislation that prohibited shipping agents and forwarders from doing any clearing and forwarding.
