From Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe on Tuesday inspected the ongoing training of 305 youths in specialised oil and gas industry skills at the Centre for Marine and Offshore Technology Development (CMOTD), Rivers State University (RSU).Sponsored by the NCDMB, the trainings cover seven technical areas, which include Automation, Instrumentation and Control, Mechanical/Process Piping and System Design/ Pressure Vessel and Heat Exchanges Design (PV-ELITE), Electrical Power Transformer Repairs and Maintenance, and Industrial/Practical Ship Design and Construction.
Other specialist areas covered by the training include Oil Well Surveillance and Enhancement Analysis Training, Capacity Building on Big Data Analytics and International Class Welding, Fabrication and Qualification.
The programme is designed for four months and forms part of the Board’s Human Capacity Development initiative, curated to close identified indigenous manpower competency gaps. Participants were selected from the Nigerian Oil and Gas Joint Qualification System (NOGICJQS) which is the oil industry’s repository of human and technical competencies.
The Executive Secretary in his remarks charged the participants to make good value of the opportunity, emphasising that the skills they are acquiring are highly sought after in the oil and gas industry and beyond.
He assured that NCDMB will continue to train Nigerians in key skills required in the operations of the oil industry and linkage sectors, and create employment opportunities, as part of the agency’s mandate, and to support the actualisation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s aspirations for the economy.
Engr. Ogbe also visited the Advanced Marine Engineering and Offshore Engineering Research Centre, that was erected at the university by an international oil company as part of the Nigerian Content institutional strengthening initiative.
The Executive Secretary promised that the furnishing and partitioning of the building would be executed, so the building can be utilised for the intended purpose. He also promised to review the delayed completion of the staff quarters, which the NCDMB built for the university.
The NCDMB boss and his delegation were received by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Isaac Zeb-Obipi, the National Chairman Nigerian Institution of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects (NIMENA)/Chairman, Management Board, CMOTD, Engr. Dr. Sylvanus Eferebo, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Prof. J. Akpa and other management personnel of the university. Dr. Eferebo informed that Rivers State University is designated by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) as the centre of excellence in marine engineering, because of the school’s specialty in the area of study and the existence of three centres in marine studies in the institution.He also affirmed that 70 percent of trainers for CMOTD’s programmes are being contributed from the oil and gas industry and other sectors, while 30 percent are from the university.
The essence, he explained, is to ensure that the trainings contain a high flavour of industry’s requirements and comply with COREN’s regulations for industry’s representatives to play key roles in the formation of engineers in Nigeria.
