Poor human capital development, bane of Nigeria’s oil industry — Experts

Some experts in the oil and gas industry on Thursday attributed poor human capital development as a major factor militating against the growth of the sector.
The experts spoke at the Africa Oil and Gas Talent Summit, (AOGS), in Lagos.
Mr Felix Amieyeofori, Chairman, Advisory Council of AOGS, said that since rich human capital was an asset in any economy, there was the need by the stakeholders to give this a priority.
Amieyeofori said the industry currently needed very skillful human capital to drive operations in the industry’s value chain.
The chairman said that the call became necessary because Nigeria had been ranked as one of the least nations in human capital index.
Amieyeofori said: “Nigeria ranked 152 out of 157 countries on the World Bank 2018 Human Capital Index list.
“Nigeria shared the bottom of the index with countries like Chad, South Sudan, Niger, Mali, and Liberia.
“Of the 85.08 million labour force by the 3rd quarter of 2017, only 7.14 per cent work in any form of industry, including the oil and gas industry,” he said.
Mr Udom Inoyo, Vice Chairman, AOGS and In-Country Human Resources Manager, ExxonMobil, tasked stakeholders to embrace automation of workforce in order to boost output.
Similarly, Prof. Wunmi Ilerare, Director, Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt, said the country lacked engineers in various fields.
“We don’t have adequate skills that will enable us to close the skill gap in the industry, and by extension, Nigeria’s economy.
“We do not have many engineers who can go into deepest part of the ocean to weld and do various engineering works and designs,” he said. (NAN)