World Report

Teaching Nigerians how to work in the energy sector will reduce unemployment and promote economic activity

Yusuf Hamishu Abubakar
Executuve Secretary ofthe PTDF

‘Our challenge is to get the right kind of education for Nigerians’

INTERVIEW

he question of how to generate more wealth and jobs for the people of Nigeria is one of the most pressing issues facing the country’s oil and gas sector. In large part, it was the creation of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in 2000 that put the issue firmly on the agenda – although unrest in the troubled Niger Delta region was another crucial factor.

In the past, industry players have frequently been criticised for not employing enough locals, or not equipping them with the right skills to start building the Nigerian energy sector of the future.

The argument goes that while foreign oil companies have got rich from Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resources, Nigerians themselves have not. An industry that accounted for 90 per cent of foreign exchange earnings was virtually totally dependent on imported manpower and equipment. Now, the issue is being addressed at the most senior levels within government.

Yusuf Abubakar (INTERVIEW), PTDF’s Executive Secretary, says his agency’s role initially was simply to encourage local participation within the industry and promote training for employment. “Problems such as those in the Niger Delta, where you have a lot of youth restiveness, unemployment and non-participation within the system, had to do with a lack of capacity,” he says.

The oil and gas industry depends heavily on imported manpower and equipment.

On a practical level, the PTDF has forged close links with academic institutions and industry bodies around the world in a broad effort to reverse the situation. It has particularly strong links with Univation, the commercial arm of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and many Nigerian students travel to Scotland each year to study.

“Our challenge is to see how we can get competent Nigerians to institutions around the world where they will get the right kind of education, so that when they come back they can either work in operating companies, service companies or set up their own business.”

So far, the PTDF has sent more than 500 students to overseas learning centres, and new partnerships are being sought with foreign universities. As well as the UK, the fund has links with learning institutions in Norway, France and the United States.

Another key focus area is to get Nigerian institutions participating in oil and gas research activities. The aim is to promote technology development, which underpins the energy business. “There are broadly two areas that we are looking at – building institutional capacity locally and building capacity within the individuals that are supposed to take control of our economy,” says Dr Abubakar.

There is, however, a clear shift in sentiment from the powers that be. Most recently the government has directed oil companies to factor the local content issue into their projects at virtually every level. In highly technical deepwater projects, for instance, indigenous firms are now starting to be heavily involved.

On a different kind of level, the government has also ordered that any new liquefied natural gas export scheme generates surplus power to feed into the national electricity grid.

Dr Abubakar wants to see Nigeria become the hub of the oil sector in the emerging West Africa region, offering expertise in places like Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome & Principe. “If all these things could be done locally it will trigger a lot of activities within our economy,” he says. “That is our aspiration.”