FG Inaugurates NGEP/NBTE Working Group to Enhance LPG, LNG, CNG Training
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The federal government yesterday inaugurated the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP)/National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) technical working group as well as the NGEP/Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) to boost the knowledge of gas across the country.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, Nicholas Ella, noted that globally, it is now a norm that graduates of technical colleges possess soft skills that make them entrepreneurs as soon as they leave the school.
He added that the move was a deliberate effort to introduce specialised skills into the curriculum of higher institutions, most especially technical colleges to bridge the skill gaps in key sector of the economy.
With the committees to be chaired by the NGEP head, Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim, Ella argued that technology and innovation are driven by people and as such it behoves on Nigeria to make the effort to introduce specialised training modules to its technical colleges’ curriculum.
While the objective of the working group is to design a comprehensive curriculum for the training of gas entrepreneurs in Mono and Polytechnics, part of its terms of reference include to: Develop a comprehensive curriculum outline for training gas LPG, LNG, CNG and Bio-Gas entrepreneurs covering technical, commercial, logistics, and other aspects of the gas value chain.
It is also to design a template for assessing and evaluating the current capacity (human, infrastructure including pedagogical tools) of mono and polytechnics in Nigeria to carry out training, among others. The timeline for submission of the report is November 15, 2024
On the NGEP/CORBON working group, the permanent secretary stated that it is expected to design a policy for the implementation of best practices for gas (LPG, PNG, and BioGas) reticulation in the building industry in Nigeria.
Its scope include: A review of the building code as it relates to gas reticulation safety, efficiency, and environmental sustainability in gas installation and usage in Nigeria.
It will, among others , also examine current gas distribution systems in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in other countries as well as propose quality requirements for materials and items.
NGEP chairman, Ibrahim, in his remarks, said the programme was aimed at grass-rooting innovation in the building industry, a major plank of modern societies.
“ There’s no society in modern civilisation that still has a situation whereby energy is being carried all over the place as it was done in the past…We are looking to see how we can add value to the capacity building of our mono- and polytechnics in the country, to see how we can put into use a good capacity for gas entrepreneurship.
“We believe that it’s only by creating a critical mass that the nation can benefit from the multitude of energy solutions that the NGEP and the Ministry of Petroleum is bringing to bear,” he stated.
