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From Femi Folaranmi, 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 underwater welders to make them employable in the oil and marine sectors of the economy.
The state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, disclosed while receiving the Director General of NACETEM, Dr Olushola Odusanya, and other top officials of the federal agency in Government House, Yenagoa, over the weekend.
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.
Dr Odusanya said they were in the state to seek collaboration with the Bayelsa State Government on the training project for underwater welders.
According to him, Bayelsa is among seven states in the country earmarked for the NACETEM training programme aimed at filling the huge shortage of certified and employable indigenous welders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
Odusanya, 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 underwater welders up to the level of international certification.
At the one-day training with the theme: Executive Order No. 5 Sectoral Assessment for Blue Economy, Marine Agriculture and Mining, participants were taken through topics such as Unlocking Opportunities in Underwater and Marine Welding; Maritime Treaties Conventions and Nigeria’s Strategic Advantage and Resource Mapping and Sustainable Development of Nigeria’s Marine Economy.
Mr Osho Stephen Toyin, zonal coordinator, South-South, NACETEM; Mrs Folawe Omowumi Sipasi-Aluko, SSA Mining to Ondo State governor; Bayelsa State Commissioner for Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Faith Izibenua Zibs-Godwin, her counterpart in Communication, Technology and Science, Munalayefa Gibson and Information, Orientation and Strategy, Hon Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, were among top officials who attended the event.
