OIL and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN)
President, Dr. Afe Mayowa, has said inter-agency collaboration would advance research and development (R&D) in universities.
Mayowa, who spoke to The Nation on telephone called, said there was the need to put more efforts for a synergy between universities and the industry.
According to him, there is nothing wrong if some PhD candidates are selected as a research team to work on a project in the university, which can be sponsored by a multinational corporation, such as Chevron.
“This is the kind of collaboration we really want to see, but as of today, we are not seeing much of that”, he stated.
Mayowa, who is Chief Executive Officer, Danvic Petroleum International Corporation, said in the developed countries, companies invest in departments that have personnel, doctoral students that would devote their time in carrying out specific research that could help the oil and gas industry.
‘’This is because the companies are in business to make money while the universities are in the process of adding knowledge. So, the companies help the students who want to go into research and add to the knowledge which they will also benefit from.
“This is because if you improve technology, a lot of things will be easy for the oil company. There is a lot of benefits in inter agency collaboration. This is to forestall duplication of efforts,” he said.
Mayowa called for the government’s support to ensure there is enabling environment for every operation to be useful. He said: “Chevron cannot collaborate with say the University of Ibadan if the environment for Chevron to do their business is not there.”
He suggested some tax concession to companies sponsoring researches in universities.’’There should be some form of tax holiday. It encourages a company to do more because it knows it will get some of the things it does tax-free. An enabling environment is key and the government should be able to provide it,’’ he said.
He said as part of efforts to contribute to the industry, the group organised a summit attended by stakeholders from across the industry.
OGTAN, he said, also issued a communiqué, which was given to government, ministry of education and stakeholders. The company had also created technical business meetings that would enable people to express themselves, he added.