NCDMB partners firm on capacity building

NIGERIAN Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has partnered Geoscape to train young graduates to boost their skills and capacity. Geoscape Head of Contracts and Assets, Morenike Jupi-Igbeka, stated at an event in Lagos that the training is mandatory.

She said Geoscape is mandated by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICD) to ensure that oil and gas operators are giving back to the economy by developing the economy, capacity and technology, which will combine to retain substantial value of contracts in-country.

According to her, “The trainees are graduates of engineering, geology, and physics – applied sciences generally. They are being trained so that they can fit into the oil and gas industry. The essence of the training is to reduce the number of expatriates that come into Nigeria to take up jobs from our locals.

“According to NCDMB, any company that is doing a contract of certain threshold in the industry must set aside minimum of about two per cent of the contract sum for training to develop capacity. That is what we are doing because we have a contract we are doing for Chevron. Geoscape won a contract and we are mandated by the law and by Chevron who owns the project to set aside some proceeds of the contract to train some youths.

“We were given a list of about 60 people. They wrote a test and we selected 22 to train for a year – six months for classroom and six months for hands-on-the-job.