Uganda National Oil Company Seeks to Partner PTI on Human Capital Devt, Others

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) has sought for collaboration with the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, in the area of human capital development.
Chief Human Resource Officer of UNOC, Catherine Tumusiime, during a tour of the Institute facilities yesterday, said there were lots her country could learn from Nigeria’s oil and gas development.

She said the key take away from their visit to PTI was that there were many areas of collaboration which Uganda could benefit from.
“We undertake knowledge sharing. We know they have a lot of expertise in this Petroleum Training Institute which we can share with Uganda people.
“We know Nigeria is far ahead of Uganda Government. We are here learning from them and oil has been here for quite some years. We know there is a lot of national content value retention in the country.

“The government is intentional to build the capacity of their people and prevent capital flight out of the country. So we have learnt a lot in terms of value retention, the national content policy and reparation through investment into their own country and making sure there is less capital flight out of Nigeria,” she said.

She assured that the UNOC would be ready to participate in seminars, workshops and other knowledge driving activities of PTI to gather more experience for the benefit of Uganda.

Tumusiime expressed appreciation to the leadership of PTI for the warm reception to her delegation and also the management of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for facilitating the visit.

Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Egbe, who was represented by General Manager, Midstream, Tassalla Tersugh, said the board received a letter from UNOC seeking to collaborate with oil and gas agencies in Nigerian and had to arrange the visit to PTI, being a critical stakeholder in the industry.

“The board identified PTI as a very important partner and stakeholder and immediately we saw their letter, we said they must come to the Institute since it is a very critical stakeholder in the oil and gas manpower development,” he said.

Acting Principal and Chief Executive Officer of PTI, Dr. Samuel Onoji, said the Institute had produced over 50,000 graduates since inception 52 years ago in line with its core objective of providing meddle level manpower for the oil and gas sector in the country.

Onoji, who was represented by the Director, Research and Development, Mrs. Tina Isichei, promised collaboration with UNOC in areas of manpower development.

She added: “I believe that this is the beginning of greater things to come between the trio of PTI, NCDMB and UNOC as we collaborate and partner together to promote the oil and gas industry in our continent.”