Oscarline Onwuemenyi 03 August 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, says it is collaborating with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, the Imperial College of London and four leading universities in Nigeria to develop a framework for world-class research for the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The NCDMB said in a statement obtained by our correspondent that the collaboration seeks to establish a Centre of Excellence, CoE, for oil and gas research at the Federal Universities of Technology, Minna, Niger State; Federal Universities of Technology, Akure, Ondo State; Federal Universities of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, and the Niger Delta University, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The aim, it said, was to solve oil and gas industry problems in Nigerian universities and local research centres, thereby growing local research capacities and retaining huge spend which stakeholders normally spend on research overseas.
Speaking at the Needs Assessment Workshop on the Board’s CoE initiative held at Imperial College, London recently, the Acting Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Patrick Daziba Obah, explained that the Board conceived the policy to galvanise the development of home-grown research and technology in the oil and gas industry.
He listed other objectives of the collaboration to include developing a pool of capable researchers and world-class research centers, linking the oil and gas industry to academia and local supply chain through research programs and creating employment and training opportunities for Nigerians on the back of research projects domiciled in-country.