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Tag: PTDF

  • PTDF trains 400 welders

    PTDF trains 400 welders

    The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has kicked off the Module ‘C’ training for 400 welders under the Welders Training and Certification Programme (WTCP).

    Executive Secretary, PTDF, Mr Femi Ajayi, said the training was initiated based on research, which revealed a skills gap of up to 8,000 in welding and fabrication in the oil and gas sector.

    Though the initiative was open to senior school certificate holders, many of the participants had higher qualifications – National Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND), and first degrees.

    They have undergone the first and second stages of the training – Modules A (Fillet Welding) and B (Plate Welding).  The Module C (Pipe Welding), which will take three months, will hold in various training centres of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) across the nation.

    As he flagged off the training at the ITF Lagos Office in Ojota, Ajayi said under the initiative, PTDF has trained over 1,000 welders up to international standard.

    “It is heartwarming for me to inform you that PTDF has so far trained over 1,000 Nigerians in various stages of the Welders Training and Certification Programme to international certifications.  A good number of the trained welders are currently engaged in the industry while many of them are being used by the various training centers as qualified instructors of the International Institute of Welding,” he said.

    Urging the students to justify the agency’s investment in them, he said the best 150 among them would be sponsored to further an advanced welding training.

    “Welding is a very costly exercise.  The materials you require are very expensive and you have to burn them all up.  But we need to burn it up so you can get the needed skills and expertise.  We are hoping that we will get 150 or 200 – the very best among you who will be involved in advanced welding.  We are looking for the best in terms of skills and attitude and also ethics,” he said.

    President, Nigerian Institute of Welding, Dr Solomon Edabiri, told the participants to count themselves fortunate to be part of the Module C training, adding that without it their relevance would be seriously limited in the industry.

    “The ability to get competency in pipewell will qualify you to get involved in the construction of pipes.  Without the trainee getting to this level, he becomes completely irrelevant in pipe construction,” he said.

    The participants thanked the agency for empowering them to contribute to societal development.  However, they appealed to the executive secretary to help to improve their accommodation, supply them with overalls, and ensure that their allowances are paid promptly.

    Abubakre Gana from Niger State said: “We say thank you for this programme. We are pleading that you supply us with overalls; we also need our accommodation to improve; we are facing a lot of challenges.  Also, our stipends should be paid at the stipulated time.  It usually comes late,” he said.

    The PTDF promised to look into the participants’ concerns.

  • Jonathan appoints Ajayi as PTDF chief

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday appointed Mr. Olufemi Ajayi as the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).

    Ajayi, who hails from Ekiti State, according to a statement issued by the President’s media aide, Dr. Reuben Abati, replaces Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, who has been in the saddle since 2013.

    Until his new appointment, he was the Director-General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

    The appointment takes immediate effect.

     

  • Board, PTDF urged to build operators’ capacity

    Worried by weak capacity building mechanism and the attendant jobs’ loss among indigenous oil and gas operators, stakeholders have advised the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board(NCDMB) and Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) to collaborate to train players in the industry.

    The stakeholders said the level of participation by Nigerian firms in the sector, particularly in contract service retention, would be in excess of $10 billion per year, if the right capacity building programmes were in place.

    The stakeholders, amongst them, the President, International of Association Energy Economics (IAEE) Nigerian Chapter, Prof Adeola Akinnisiju and President, International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), Mr Sola Falodun, said billions of dollars can be generated from oil and gas services.

    Akinnisiju, said the Board is into advocacy through which it is seeking local participation in oil and gas, while PTDF empowers stakeholders to achieve results. When they work together, they would be able to compliment each other well. This would build the capacity of local operators and further give them the opportunity to compete with their foreign counterparts, he said.

    ‘’ There are huge opportunities in the sector, but that can only translate to capital gains for local operators when they equip themselves. With the right training in place, local companies should be able to handle big-ticket jobs hitherto given to foreign companies.’’

    Also, Falodun said the drive by the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board will attract investments to the petroleum industry if it is sustained. He said capacity building is the gateway to success in the industry, adding that the association is planning to organise skills acquisition programmes for drilling operators for growth.

  • 15 students win PTDF scholarship

    15 students win PTDF scholarship

    Fifteen students of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) have won the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) scholarships.

    They were among the over 500 candidates shortlisted to write the scholarship examination July last year.

    Six of them are from Computer Science Department; five, Mechanical Engineering; three, Chemical Engineering, and one, Chemistry.

    The Dean, Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, Prof J.S. Sadiku, was elated that a department in his faculty, Computer Science, produced the highest number of recipients. He said the students have projected the university positively.

    Dr R.G. Jimoh, the Acting Head of Department of Computer Science, said the students are focused on their studies and have proven their potential to succeed by their performance in internal examinations.

    One of the recipients from the department, Ganiyat Afolabi, who is also a university scholar, thanked the university for providing an enabling environment for learning.

     

     

     

  • PTDF, experts disagree on refineries’ privatisation

    Operators have said sustainable development is required to move the oil and gas industry forward. They spoke at the Sustainability Conference organised by a Non-Government Organisation, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR-in –Action), in Lagos. The Manager, Public and Government Affairs, Chevron Nigeria, Deji Hastrup said the growth recorded in the industry must be sustained to achieve economic growth. hE said: “In Nigeria, there is a gap between resource availability and the realisation of its potential. We need to recognise that there is no country that can develop without energy.” An official of the Shell Petroleum Development Company, Dr Uwem Ite, said: “Sustainable development is not about one group, but about partnerships amongst different stakeholders.” The Chairman, Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Emeka Ene, said: “The importance of building trust with indigenous communities cannot be overemphasised.” The President, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, said: “The monies spent by oil companies do not translate to impact on the ground. Communities must be elevated to the status of equal partners in sustainability discussions.”

  • Investments in brain gain

    I have some ideas President Goodluck Jonathan could implement that will be remembered long after he has left office as President.

    If as an academic, he can reverse the brain drain that has become the lot of this country he will leave a legacy we will forever appreciate.

    Every year, we lose the best of our brains to foreign countries where their talents are exploited to move their own societies forward. With advances in technology and knowledge making the world more compact, we have realised it is an imperative for us to gain globally competitive skills and we are making efforts to do so. However gaining the skills is not enough. There has to be opportunities to use the skills in Nigeria. Unfortunately, we do not have many of such opportunities at home so our talented people go elsewhere.

    Migration is an issue around the world. The developed countries, where these opportunities abound, are straining under the burden of supporting outsiders so do everything to restrict entry into their domains. While they have no patience for no-do-gooders, and are quick to deport them, they welcome foreigners who have what they seek to further develop.

    I was still fresh on the job when I learnt about Oluwatosin Otitoju, who graduated from Queen’s College, Yaba with the best SSCE result in Nigeria in 1996. She went ahead to study Electrical Engineering at Howard University in the United States on scholarship, where she finished with a First Class. She was immediately accepted to do a doctorate in Control and Dynamics System at the California Institute of Technology, the first Howard alumnus to win the Poincare Fellowship, sponsors of the scholarship.

    Many more were before Otitoju and even after her. Philip Emeagwali, a major contributor to the speed of the Internet works today, also readily comes to mind. It was here in Nigeria that he attended primary and secondary schools, where he was cajoled by his father to solve loads of maths questions in seconds. These two are among the thousands, we have applying their knowledge and skills abroad.

    They may be passionate about the country they left behind. But remaining outside there, I wonder how much they can do to improve the fortunes of the country.

    Chisom Mildred Okpala, is about to join them. She resumes at Harvard in August on full scholarship to study Economics and Mathematics. She would love to contribute to Nigeria’s economy, like former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Uweala. She hopes to return someday to do so. I hope she does.

    This piece is not to disparage anybody for seeking greener pastures but to call the attention of our leaders, particularly President Jonathan to find a way to keep our most talented people at home to develop the country.

    Our education system is not as bad as we make it. The trio I have mentioned in this piece started out in this country, studying at primary and secondary schools where the education curriculum used was wholly indigenous. They did not attend international schools. They wrote our public examinations on the basis of which they earned scholarships to study abroad.

    For instance, it was because Chisom made seven A1 and two B3 in the 2010 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) that she was nominated for a programme organised by the United States to identify talented students for American schools. It is this same examination, which the examining body, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) battles with exam cheats to ensure its credibility every year that produced the 17-year old who got a slot among the 6.2 per cent of 34,950 candidates admitted into Harvard for next session. Her admission affirmed the decision by WAEC to give her the grades she earned.

    It also shows that there is nothing wrong with our curriculum and instruments for testing knowledge; that if we improve on them, we will compete even better with the best around the world.

    However, more important is how Chisom was discovered. In her country of birth and origin, it was the embassy of a foreign country that thought it expedient to seek out talents like her. If the United States can have a programme for the best brains in Nigeria, how much more the government of Nigeria, which has a greater responsibility to its citizens.

    I know that the Federal Government has various kinds of scholarship programmes. There is one that provides undergraduates of Federal-owned tertiary institutions who have Cumulative Grade Point Averages of 3.00 points and above and scale through tests with funds every session. I know there are postgraduate scholarships as well that provide funding for foreign education – e.g the PTDF scholarship.

    However, unlike the United States programme, where the initiators are only interested in what you have to offer, our own programmes are dogged by inconsistencies, nepotism, corruption and favouritism.

    Rather than accept talented people, we consider things like catchment area, which means some not-so-qualified people are accepted at the expense of brilliant people. If President Jonathan wants to put an end to brain drain, this has to stop.

    He also need to evolve programmes to encourage academics and other talented people to return to work in the country. That means he needs to fix the energy problem, provide infrastructure such as good roads, potable water and health facilities, and engage them in areas where they will excel in place of politicians and sychophants.

     

  • PTDF bankruptcy alert

    PTDF bankruptcy alert

    The Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) is right to have handed a seven-day deadline to the management of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to provide a record of its earnings from all sources in the last five years. It is also right in directing that the PTDF should provide a comprehensive list of its portfolio investments. Chairman of the committee, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, gave the ultimatum to the PTDF management, led by its executive secretary, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, during the committee’s visit to carry out its oversight function on the agency.

    What the Senate committee discovered was as unexpected as it was disappointing. Dr. Oluleye told the committee tales of woe, to the surprise of the members. He said the PTDF would be completely bankrupt within the next few months unless the Federal Ministry of Finance paid it the amount of N57bn budget backlog for 2013. He then enumerated the catalogue of woes faced by the PTDF.

    First, that the non-payment of the above amount to the agency could deprive Nigerian students currently on the PTDF scholarships in foreign universities of their grants. Second, that the PTDF has not been able to pay workers’ salaries in the past two months, due to cash crunch. Third, that the multi-billion dollar statutory “signature bonus” payments had been withheld from PTDF for some years.

    However, as Paulker’s team noted, the agency’s bankruptcy claims were untenable. In the first place, the PTDF had “several portfolio investments and other sources of income which are shrouded in secrecy”. How then is it possible to know its true financial position? Not only this, the committee boss also faulted the practice of anticipatory budgeting of the agency, pointing out that the practice was “criminal and negated the Procurement Act”. He queried: “What happened to your (PTDF) investment portfolios? You cannot say because signature bonus has not been paid, you are suddenly broke and cannot pay salaries and fund scholarships abroad. I think it is an indictment of the PTDF and you are being economical with the truth”.

    We wonder why the PTDF should be on its way to bankruptcy when it had a budget that was duly passed for its operations, and which, according to the committee members’ findings, the agency declared N123,205,016.77 in “Excess of Income Over Expenditure”. How can we sustain its claim of inability to pay workers’ salaries and meet sundry financial obligations? Worse is the opacity of the agency’s operations. For instance if, as the Senate committee noted, that it has investment portfolios which should be generating money for it, why should the money generated from these investments on a regular basis be shrouded in secrecy?

    The PTDF should be given its due under the laws. Indeed, we do not understand why it should be deprived of funds duly allocated to it in the budget. This is, however, not to say that its operations cannot be probed with a view to determining how it has been spending public funds from its budget allocations and investment portfolios.

    Moreover, appropriate sanctions should be meted to whoever is found to have been involved in the situation whereby the country has had to beg foreign universities over our inability to pay our students’ fees, thus embarrassing the Federal Government, and worse still, possible misappropriation of funds in the agency. To whom much is given, much more is expected. Perhaps PTDF’s bankruptcy claim is an attempted cover-up or a diversionary tactic, or both.