From Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Government has indicated its preparedness to collaborate with the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) for the training and certification of local welders to make them employable in the oil and marine sectors of the economy.
The state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the indication on Thursday during a courtesy visit by the Director General and other top officials of the federal agency in Government House, Yenagoa.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, the Deputy Governor, maintained that Bayelsa was ready to do everything necessary for the collaboration to work in line with the Diri-led Administration’s agenda for job and wealth creation in the state.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, however, enjoined NACETEM to also extend its collaborative network to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and other relevant federal agencies on the project.
Underscoring the seriousness the state government attached to the project, he assured the delegation that a crack team would be set up expeditiously to work in synergy with NACETEM officials to facilitate the smooth and timely take-off of the training project in the state.
While decrying certain environmentally unfriendly activities of oil companies in the Niger Delta, Senator Ewhrudjakpo noted that the NACETEM should also engage the companies in its drive to change the narrative in marine mining in the mangrove belt of the country.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Dr. Olushola Odusanya, said they were in the state to seek collaboration with the Bayelsa State Government on the training project for welders.
According to Dr. Olushola, Bayelsa is among seven states in the country earmarked for the NACETEM training programme aimed at filling up the huge shortage of certified and employable indigenous welders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The Director Genera, who pointed out that the average annual income of a certified welder in the industry was over $40,000, stressed the need for effective cooperation between the state and interventionist agencies of government in the Niger Delta region to train welders up to the level of international certification.
