OGTAN appeals to NNPC to spearhead in-country trainings

To boost local capacity building in the oil and gas sector and other technical discipline, the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) has called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to champion the cause of retaining local trainings in country instead of imposing on oil companies to train abroad.

The President of the association, Dr. Afe Mayowa who said this yesterday in Lagos at the July session of OGTAN Business Forum which was supported by Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and sponsored by Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, said that they are not against people training overseas to acquire technical knowledge that are not available in country, but what the body frowns at is when oil companies are forced by NNPC to train abroad when capacities are obtainable in country.

OGTAN he noted supports foreign trainings but should be done with a positive sense of responsibility not because they just want to rain overseas to get estacode.

Mayowa stated that they are calling on the corporation because they want them to lead by example instead of forcing oil companies to send people abroad for training and leave them to complain and groan in silence.

“A lot of companies are telling us but they can’t tell them, but we as an association, we deemed it fit in the interest of our country to advise NNPC to be an example,” he added.

He said all these trainings have positive multiplier effect in the country because all the overseas trainings are at huge cost and Nigerians must change attitude, as most of these trainings can be done in Nigeria.

Representing the chairman NCDMB, Simbi Wabote, the Director Planning Research and Statistics of the Board, Patrick Obah, also remarked that there are lots of trainings currently taking place in country but one can’t rule out the fact that foreign companies still patronize trainings abroad.

He however said if Nigerians look inwards in the area of trainings in the industry, they could have more of Nigerian companies to train people, something like train the trainer programmes.

One of the Total Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Education Initiative beneficiaries, Head, Department of Computer Science, Federal University Lokoja, Prof. Francisca Oladipo said the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) Curriculum is the minimum as other additions to courses are possible unlike what people believe.

She harped that apart from infrastructural gap in the education system in the country, the delivery mode is also faulty, hence the production of graduates who are not marketable.