Govt tasked to fund oil, gas training body
Mr James Okwi (R) from the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, Ms Reham Mustafa (second right), the general secretary of OGTAU and Mr Bernard Ongodia (2nd left) the OGTAU chairman during the 17th Skills Development Dialogue at Busoga International Polytechnic in Jinja City on November 25, 2022. PHOTO | PHILIP WAFULA
What you need to know:
- The three-year body brings together individuals, academic training institutions and training service providers in the oil and gas sector across the country.
The Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Uganda (OGTAU) has asked the government and development partners to strengthen their capacity through increasing funding and provision of training materials.
The three-year body brings together individuals, academic training institutions and training service providers in the oil and gas sector across the country.
Mr Bernard Ongodia, the chairperson of OGTAU, said they are rallying the entirely membership to raise enough funds to run activities.
“The government needs to come in and strengthen areas that are still lacking, especially with procurement of training facilities and infrastructure development,” he said during the 17th Skills Development Dialogue at Busoga International Polytechnic (BIP) in Jinja City last Friday.
Mr Ongodia, who is also the principal of Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba (UPIK), said the association was in talks with partners, including TotalEnergies Uganda, to offer more assistance.
“Although most training institutions are poorly funded, the recent decision by the government to enhance salaries of teachers of science subjects greatly improved their morale,” he said.
Mr James Okwi, the skills development officer at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), said they need training institutes in the field of oil and gas, pointing at countries such as Nigeria, which have heavily invested in skilling the human resource.
Mr Okwi noted that since its formation, OGTAU has enriched the curriculum for training students in universities and other tertiary institutions and have reached the Final Investment Decision (FID).
“I commend the government of the United Arab Emirates for its offer of 200 scholarships for students in the oil and gas sector, in addition to other support given to the sector,” he added.
Ms Reham Mustafa, the OGTAU general secretary, said: “We feel that we could be beneficial in terms of recruitment, training and we want to make sure our students benefit from all the projects that are in Uganda through the oil and gas companies.”
According to Ms Mustafa, it is an obligation for oil and gas companies to train thousands of Ugandans to benefit from multi-billion projects.
“They (Ugandans) need to be part of this growing economy and we are doing our best at Busoga International Polytechnic (BIP), where we are training our students in global international certifications and engineering.
“The community and other training providers are capable of providing a workforce to the standard of international oil and gas companies,” Ms Mustafa, who is also the director of BIP, added.
