Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Co-ordinator of the Amnesty Committee, Mr. Timi Alaibe disclosed this at the campMonday at the passing out parade of the 2nd batch of ex-militants.
He also said the first and second batches would commence their skill acquisition training on August 20 at their the designated centres.
According to him, “in the next batch, 1,000 exmilitants would be admitted into camp for the orientation and rehabilitation course.”
He also disclosed that the militants who were not registered for this programme and who did not meet the Federal Government’s deadlineon the renunciation of militantcy would have to wait, adding, however,that they were being documented and undergoing verification.
Oil firms to invest $500m on N-Delta youths
In line with the Federal Government local content policy, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, yesterdaysaid operators of the oil and gas industry are to spend over $500million annually in the next five years for the training of youths inengineering design projects.
The Board also disclosed that the industry was expected to spend another $800bn annually on fabrication and integration as well asempowerment of the youths with a view to curbing crime rates in thecountry particularly in the Niger Delta, the hub of the nation oil andgas sector.
General Manager, Capacity Building, NCDMB, Engr. Taiwo Elegba stated this in Yenagoa during a workshop for media practitioners to mark thefirst 100 days of the Board.
According to him, the board and the stakeholders in the oil and gas sectors are expected to start reaping high dividends of the NigerianContent Act recently passed into law by the Federal Government.
Engr. Elegba who reiterated the determination of the board to improve oil and gas activities in the country so as to attractinvestors to the sector added that it was the aspiration of NCDMB toincrease the country’s reserve to 40 billion.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Ernest Nwapa laudedPresident Goodluck Jonathan for signing the Nigerian Content Actshortly after its passage by the National Assembly, describing it as ademonstration of the commitment of the administration to squarelyaddress the longstanding issues of lack of local capacity and the nearabsence of meaningful indigenous participation in the oil and gasindustry.
“The issue of Nigerian content is no longer news because we have sufficient domain knowledge to guide us through a successfulimplementation of the law which was developed with high level ofindustry participation in the legislative process.
“This law is an opportunity to resurge our national economic development, create employment, develop local industrial andtechnological capacity growth, douse the tensions in the Niger Delta byintegrating the inhabitants of the oil producing communities into themainstream of industry activities,” he said.
Engr.Nwapa said most expatriates working in Nigeria would be disposed to comply with provisions of the law because their homecountries require them to do so and had done such in other jurisdictionthey operate in,” adding, “a major gap is the continued absence ofcommitment and resolve on the part of Nigerians in key positions ofauthority within the industry to insist that we collectively andconsistently abide by the provisions of this law and make it count inthe way other nationals drive their local content laws.”
He, however added, “if we don’t insist the foreigners won’t help us with compliance.”
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