*Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of State for Petroleum.
15 October 2016, Lagos — Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has challenged the Petroleum Training Institute, PTI and other parastatals under his ministry, to evolve strategies that would help them improve on their internally generated revenue, IGR, to sustain the institute.
The minister stated this while inspecting the infrastructure and upgrade facilities provided by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, at PTI, Effurun.
He explained that with the upgrade done by PTDF, it was expected that PTI would become a leading oil and gas training institute with the mandate of producing middle-level manpower that would bridge the gap of foreign domination of the industry.
He said: “I know how much money we spent in NNPC just to refurbish tanks everywhere and not just the NNPC but the entire downstream industry. If we had a training programme with the facilities to do those, not only could you train, but individuals could actually take work from the sector to try and grow, as looking at how to generate income to sustain the place is key.”
*Grace Udofia – Vanguard
