The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Presidential Amnesty Programme have begun to work together towards creating employment opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry for ex-militants who have undergone specialized training programmes.
Ernest Nwapa, the executive secretary, NCDMB, and Kingsley Kuku, the chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, confirmed this in Abuja while speaking at the just concluded Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference.
Kuku was represented at the event by Lawrence Pepple, his special assistant.
Over 1,498 ex-militants underwent various training programmes in foreign locations such as South Africa, Ghana, Cyprus, Dubai, with some of them specialising in practical oil and gas disciplines. Confirming the collaboration, the Executive Secretary said the Board is working with all stakeholders of the industry under the strong leadership of Deziani Alison-Madueke, the minister of Petroleum Resources, to domicile more work in the country and deepen the capacity of the local supply chain to execute complex industry work, thereby creating more opportunities for employment of qualified Nigerians.
Nwapa stated that major operating companies, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot employ more than 50,000 Nigerians as they had outsourced most of their operations, adding however that the industry was capable of creating thousands of jobs through the execution of its jobs in-country. “We are pulling the industry together because they have the capacity to create new shop floors and it is only where there are jobs that training can thrive and succeed,” he said.
He identified the manufacturing of components of various equipment used by the industry as the segment that will unlock thousands of productive job opportunities for young Nigerians, including ex-militants.
The Executive Secretary further advised that “When the ex-militants come back, they should not be kept together. Instead, we will take them in twos or threes and inject them into projects as ordinary Nigerians, without them having tags as ex-militants.
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