OGTAN advocates for domestication of oil and gas trainees to promotes local content development

…Set to inaugurates National Executive Council on April 13

The Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) has said that only the proper training of Nigerian workers will guarantee local content development in the oil and gas industry.

The OGTAN’s president, Dr.   Mayowa Afe said that domestication of oil and gas trainees would save the country billions of dollars and create more jobs opportunities for Nigerians

Mayowa made the advised in a statement issued and signed by the OGTANS’ Director of Media Communications, Mr John Itua in Lagos to sensitized stakeholders on the forthcoming inauguration of the OGTAN’S national executive council slated to hold in April 13 at Eko Hotel and Suites.

The Inauguration will have the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) as the Guest Speaker and will be speaking on the Topic: “Increasing Indigenous Participation and capacity Development in The Oil and Gas Industry – The Journey So far”

According to him, “There is need to standardize  training to get more value; training should be domesticated to handle issues that are peculiar to our environment and generate adequate human capital for our oil and gas industry even enough for export because training is key to local content development.

“We want to discourage portfolio trainers – people who just walk into companies to organize trainings; invite trainers and after that, walk away,” he said.

The president said that OGTAN, which vision is to develop a Nigerian oil and gas training business group that interfaces with the operators, international organisations and government, to ensure a total human capacity development in the industry and the attainment of the Nigerian Content goals, was formed with the support of the Nigerian Content Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to address the manpower development needs of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Mayowa said that “lf majority of oil and gas trainees is done locally in Nigeria it would address issues of foreign exchange challenges confronting the sector.  The issues of dollars denomination should be address through should local domestication of companies.

“Government agencies, Institutions, International Oil and gas companies should partners with OGTAN to invest in developing trainers in-country,’’ he said.

Mayowa  noted that OGTAN which is the independent umbrella group of training service providers in the oil and gas sector was established by the Nigerian Content Development  and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) act in 2010.

According to him, OGTAN represent the Education and Training Sectorial Group of the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF) under section 58 of the NOGICD Act 2010, with the purpose to build local human capital capacity in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry.

Mayowa  said that the association act as a business group that interfaces with operators, International organisation and the Nigerian government, adding that  national executive council will be inaugurated in Lagos at Eko Hotel in April 13.

He said that executive secretary of the NCDMB will be presenting the keynote paper at the event title, “The Local Content and Human Capacity Development in the oil and gas industry: The journey so far.

The OGTAN president said that the Executive secretary of the PTDF and NCDMB will be honoured and decorated at the event as strategic partners of OGTAN.

“This is in recognition of their roles in Human capacity development in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

“OGTAN will also be participating in the 2017 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) to enable our members interact with international training organizations with the aim of partnering with them in other to domesticate  more oil and gas trainings in Nigeria,’’ he said.

He argued that there was the need to track training to ensure that it is useful and relevant to the industry.

Afe  noted that the objective of the association was to create enabling environment for in-house trainers and create  awareness geared towards effective domestication of capacity to drive local content in the country.

He said it is also meant to build capacity within the industry to international standards; and facilitate the implementation of total compliance with local content requirements through effective human capacity development strategies in alignment with Federal Government directives and applicable laws.

Others includes focused on NCDMB requirements for domiciliation training; implementation of local capacity building initiatives – IOC expectations; determining and addressing issues and challenges faced by Nigerian trainers; and the establishment of work groups to address and proffer solutions to identified issues and challenges.

He said that forthcoming event which also provided an excellent opportunity for networking and to meet with key players within the oil and gas industry training sub-sector.