Monday, 12 September 2011 00:00 BY DELE FANIMO AND DAMILOLA OSUNSANYA Business Services - Business News
Chibuzor Ugwoha is the Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, created by the Federal Government as an intervention agency to fast-track development and ameliorate ecological and physical degradation in the Niger Delta region. In this interview with DELE FANIMO and DAMILOLA OSUNSANYA, he explains the current focus on human capital development as a catalyst for sustainable growth and how the agency has evolved to key into the local content policy of government, among other issues. Excerpts.
WHAT are the achievements of NDDC viewed against your mandate?
FIRST, NDDC has done a lot in terms of providing infrastructural development in its targeted areas, that is, the nine oil producing states. We have provided agricultural training for youths and also raised micro-credit facilities in partnership with financial institutions to create easy access to loans for persons who wish to do their own businesses. NDDC has, also been able to address the issues of shore protection, road construction, water supply, electricity, and transportation among others in the Niger Delta. Having done these over the years, we now thought about developing human capital in the region.
You and I know that the major problem in the country today is youth restiveness, which translates to unemployment and poverty. We recognise that if the mandate of the commission is to be achieved, which is transforming the area and making it peaceful, economically viable and regenerative, we need to redefine transformation in the context of human capital development. Even at that, we quite appreciate the enormity of the task and know too well that the NDDC alone cannot do it all.
We have, therefore, gone into strategic partnerships with the public and private sectors, as well as international agencies in order to achieve this vision.
For instance, we are in partnership with the Cross River State government to provide top rate facilities that will enhance poultry business in the region. As I speak, our partnership with the Nigeria Institute of Welding has produced 25 internationally certified welders in the region. The 25 persons were trained in Nigeria at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun and at the South Africa Welding Institute in Johannesburg . To underscore the point, we have only about 38 certified welders in Nigeria today of whom 25 are from the Niger Delta. I mean the kind of welders that can handle effectively the welding jobs that the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta which they bring Asians and all manners of artisans outside the country to do for them. A second level of that training programme has just been completed at the German Welding Institute in Instanbul , Turkey where 40 persons have been trained in welding inspection, thus making it a complete package of quality workers and quality inspectors in welding engineering.
We are also in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to train youths in various drilling and marine skills required in the oil and gas industry. We are into something similar with the Nigerian Maritime Academy , Oron and Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to train thousands of youths from the region as mariners and seafarers.
You may ask why this drastic shift in emphasis. People have to drive every process of development. Therefore, if you go about building infrastructure without a corresponding enhancement of the human factor, you shall enthrone a metrics that will be extremely difficult to sustain. Whatever resources you have in your environment including the human beings should blend harmoniously to make life more meaningful.
What other areas of human capital development is the commission targeting?
I was talking about welding. Let me say more that welding is central to all fields of engineering. Whether you are building or you are running an oil company, you will need to weld. We were able to establish that and then did an assessment that further revealed that the type of welding I am talking about is very crucial in the oil and gas sector. And so what we have done in that area is most articulate, need-driven and targeted at placements in the oil and gas industry. Beneficiaries of previous trainings usually return to block NDDC gates and hunt the commission, because the employment component of the programme was never clearly thought out.
Even now, those 25 specially trained welders are themselves engaged in training other welders. About 700 more welders are being trained at certified training centres around the Niger Delta region. At the completion of these programmes, 700 youths would have been certified fillet, plate and pipe welders. You know the oil and gas company is capital intensive and they would not want to place their activities in the hands of quacks.
Essentially, what we are doing is to align ourselves with the local content policy of the Federal Government. We also believe that not everybody would join the group of engineers. If you look at film making, it is the fastest growing industry in Nigeria . If somebody is not in science, he could be good in the entertainment business. There are a whole lot of stories to be told and things to be discovered using the medium of film. We do not want our youths to be left behind and so, last year, we sponsored the training of 250 people in acting, directing and other aspects of film production and as I speak with you, another 250 are undergoing training in Lagos with the New York Film Academy, which also did last year’s training.
I have spoken of our on-going training programmes in maritime skills here in Nigeria and abroad. We have also concluded arrangements to send 50 youths to Dubai for similar training and let me add that we are not just sending people out for the fun of it but following up effectively to ensure that those being sent acquire the knowledge that will give them employment in the competitive labour market.
I should also say that not only engineers work in the oil industry, Accountants and other professionals do work there too. But in whatever area, the current high level of office automation has made ICT indispensable in career growth across board. Thus, engineers, accountants, doctors and even lawyers and artists all need computer to function optimally. We decided therefore to introduce computer-training programmes to specific packages to specific professionals. For instance, instead of the usual general computer appreciation, the accountant should be trained in the specific ICT package that should help him in his accounting job. Same goes for the architect, engineer, town planner, medical doctor and so on. By so doing, we sharpen their delivery capabilities and put them in a stead to compete with those that have studied in the best schools in the world. As I speak to you, 2,500 youths are undergoing the NDDC computer training.
We have gone beyond this to create an online database of professionals in the Niger Delta region. People are registering and if you are an employer and interested in Niger Delta, you can go to the website we have developed, type in your job request and it will throw up the list of all qualified persons with their detail resumes in the area of your request. From there, you can pick the ones you wish to invite for interview.
I understand human capital development as the quality and marketability of the people being trained and education is the foremost instrument in this regard. Take for instance, when the late Ken Saro-Wiwa was commissioner for education in the old Rivers State , he studied and applied the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowos concept on education. He gave scholarships to a lot of his Ogoni people to study within and outside Nigeria at a time when the old Ogonis were considered backward in the then sociological framework of Rivers State . Today, the story has changed and the Ogonis are about the most educated and progressive in Rivers State .
The benefits of that initiative just as the free education of the old Western Region under Pa Awolowo were not immediate. They took good time to manifest. Today, the NDDC is doing something in that direction with its oversea scholarship scheme for postgraduate studies (Masters and Doctorates) in Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, ICT, Environmental and Geo-sciences in reputable universities abroad. Last year, 200 people benefited and the process of selecting the same number for this year’s award is nearing conclusion. The selection is by a committee of reputable academics and it is strictly based on merit. In fact, only holders of first class and second-class upper division degrees are eligible to apply in the first place.
For now, these highly laudable efforts may not add up to anything tangible, but the benefits shall start tumbling in a couple of years from now. I am happy to announce that FirstBank Plc has been encouraged to support the scholarship scheme with 20 per cent of the total money expendable by the commission on the award.
Any synergy with the amnesty programme?
Basically, the amnesty progamme is a kind of direct intervention by Federal Government to tackle the issues in the Niger Delta. The NDDC by the law establishing it, is an interventionist agency, created to also intervene and offer solutions to the perennial questions of the Niger Delta. And so, there is a partnership but while the Amnesty Programme is focusing on ex-militants, any Niger Delta youth either militant or non-militant is free to come into our programme provided he or she follows the right channel.
Any guarantee that all your trained welders, for instance, will be absorbed in the end by the oil companies?
Welding is not only needed in the oil companies. When you are building bridges, you need welders. Some of them may even establish on their own. For well-trained artisans generally, the employment market is never saturated in Nigeria and even if the market becomes saturated, they can be exported to other parts of Africa . Foreigners have been coming to Nigeria to do work that can be effectively done by Nigerians. If we have the right type of people, I believe other African countries would prefer having Nigerian to having European or Asian expatriates.
The Nigerian Institute of Management just gave you an award, what is it all about?
The NIM gave the NDDC an award not me in person. I only received the award on behalf of the commission as the chief executive. They call it Management Excellence Award and in presenting the plague to me, the President of NIM, Dr. (Mrs.) Sally Nkem Adukwu Bolujoko said that the institute was specially thrilled by the NDDC’s initiatives in building the capacities of youths in the Niger Delta region. My happiness is that even when we think we still have so much to do in the area of human capacity building, people watching us from outside, are already expressing satisfaction. I feel honoured and I give all the glory to God and also thank the board, management and staff of the NDDC for making it possible for us to drive in this direction.
What are the specific challenges in driving an agency as yours?
I was coming from a private sector background to the public sector. The environments are different and there must be some learning process so that both ends can fuse into a new creative force that has begun manifesting in the way the NDDC currently conducts its businesses. In the end, I want to be remembered for causing those changes which truly brought the NDDC most close to its mandate as an agency created by government to bring development in the Niger Delta.
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