The newly sworn-in senator from Kogi State says the interventionist agency can work with the local content board to scale skills development that addresses the manpower needs of companies in the niger delta region
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, (PDP, Kogi Central) has admonished the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to upscale its skills development efforts such that beneficiaries can feed the local content capacity of companies operating in the niger delta area.
Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan made the call on Thursday during an interactive session between the Senate Committee on Local Content and the NDDC Managing Director, Samuel Ogbuku, where she urged the NDDC to take into account the necessity of being the primary recruiters of their trained workforce in order to achieve effective service delivery.
“NDDC should consider being the primary recruiters of their trained workforce. Artisans or skilled professionals such as ICT workers can be absorbed by NDDC contractors, which in turn, will enable the commission reach the most vulnerable and neglected youth,” she said.
As the Chairman, Local Content Committee, she also pledged to partner with the NDDC on establishing a database of artisans within the country to strengthen the workforce and ultimately promote microeconomic growth for Nigeria.
“Local Content Committee intends to deploy innovative thinking for positive results, thus, we are building a database of carefully profiled artisans who have been trained by NDDC, SMEDAN, etc, and work modalities to have the oil & gas companies, as well as government contractors, recruit from the pool of verified workforce.
“This would help curb unemployment by keeping the jobs locally. Such a project would also help the Local content board, NDDC and other agencies monitor and evaluate the performance of our collective capacity-building efforts towards achieving a common microeconomic growth for Nigeria and Africa at large” she stated.
The Kogi senator was sworn into the senate less than a month ago after a long legal battle which ended at the Appeal court recently.
