Funmi Ogundare
The Chairman, Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Victoria Island Branch, Mr. John Audu has expressed the society’s readiness to expose Nigerian engineers to more intensive and strategic training opportunities so as to bridge the competency gaps in the sector.
Audu who made this known, recently at the end of year dinner and public lecture titled, “The Impact of NOGICD Act 2010 on In-Country Contractors Capabilities’, said the move was necessary so as to deliver the needed change, engender innovation and entrepreneurship among them, adding that it will be deploying the training from the first quarter of 2020.
According to him, “We have been trying our best over the years by exposing engineers to good quality training opportunities, but this time, we are taking it to the next level by making it more intensive and strategic so we can deliver the change that Nigerian engineers need in order to bridge the competency gaps.
“At our branch, we have series of training opportunities that we have developed and will be deploying as from the first quarter of next year.
“Each of it is targeted specifically at addressing the competency gaps amongst our engineers, but more importantly, our target is to engender innovation and entrepreneurship among them.”
In order to ensure the competency of its members, he said the NSE set up the Nigerian Content Monitoring Board (NCMB) designed to ensure that every project from the oil and gas sector, as well as associated companies, have training embedded in their contracts for Nigerians to be trained and capacity to be built in-country on and off the job and in-classroom.
Speaking on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, enacted in April 2010 and its impacts on members, Audu noted that the idea was to ensure that participation of Nigerians in the oil and gas industry was significantly increased.
He added that it was also designed to build capacity in Nigeria and for Nigerians to do work in -country as much as possible.
“It’s been a gradual process and it has been remarkable because there has been a lot of achievement in this area of building capacity in -country. There are many success stories with several Nigerian companies owning world class pipeplay vessel and fabricated yards.”
