NACETEM Partners Bayelsa To Train, Certify Underwater Welders

Bayelsa State Government has pledged to collaborate with the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) for the training and certification of underwater welders.
The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewrudjakpo, who made the pledge during a courtesy call on him by the Director General and other top officials of NACETEM in Yenagoa, said the training would make the trainees employable in the oil and marine sectors of the economy.
He however enjoined NACETEM to also extend its collaborative network to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and other agencies on the project.
He assured the delegation that a team would be set up to work with NACETEM to facilitate the take-off of the training in the state.
While decrying certain environmentally unfriendly activities of oil companies in the Niger Delta, Ewhrudjakpo noted that NACETEM should also engage the companies in its drive to change the narrative in marine mining in the mangrove belt of the country.
The Director General of the NACETEM, Dr. Olushola Odusanya, said they were in the state to seek collaboration with the Bayelsa State Government on the training project for underwater welders.
According to Olushola, Bayelsa was among seven states in the country earmarked for the NACETEM training programme aimed at filling up the huge shortage of certified and employable indigenous welders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The director-general noted that the average annual income of a certified welder in the industry was over $40,000.
He emphasised the need for effective cooperation between the state and interventionist agencies in the Niger Delta region to train underwater welders to the level of international certification.