Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke yesterday stated that at least five million Nigerians would be employed in the Federal Government’s Gas Revolution Industrial Park that will come on stream this year.

She said the park would host fertilizer, petrochemical and methanol plant.

Speaking during a budget defence with the House of Representatives joint committees on gas, petroleum (upstream) and (downstream), the minister disclosed that pre-construction activities had already created over 1,000 jobs while additional 50,000 jobs would be created at the peak of construction activities.

“When the park is functional and the fertilizer and petrochemical plant are producing, over five million value chain jobs will be created,” she said.

Madueke explained that over 400 youths had been trained as internationally certified welders as well as the introduction of a pilot training programme through which 15 highly specialized pilots had been trained.

She enumerated other efforts the government was making in the creation of jobs to include training of youths in Ahoada, Ogba-Egbema, Ndoni Federal Constituency of Rivers State, capacity development of petroleum engineers, chemical engineers and geologists and up scaling managerial competence in oil and gas sector, training of youth on skill acquisition in areas such as wire line, electrical installations, carpentry including the Federal Government Amnesty Programme (training of Niger Delta ex-militants)

•Sourced from Daily Sun. Photo shows Alison-Madueke.