The Bayelsa government on Friday pledged to collaborate with the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) for the training and certification of underwater welders.

The training is aimed to make the trainees employable in the oil and marine sectors of the economy.

Bayelsa Deputy Governor, Sen Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the indication during a courtesy visit by the Director General and other top officials of NACETEM in Government House, Yenagoa.

The deputy governor maintained that Bayelsa was ready to do everything necessary for the collaboration to work in line with the Diri-led administration’s agenda for job and wealth creation in the state.

Ewhrudjakpo, however, enjoined NACETEM to also extend its collaborative network to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and other agencies on the project.

Underscoring the seriousness the state government attached to the project, he assured the delegation that a team would be set up expeditiously to work in synergy with NACETEM officials to facilitate the smooth and timely take-off of the training project in the state.

While decrying certain environmentally unfriendly activities of oil companies in the Niger Delta, Ewhrudjakpo noted that the NACETEM should also engage the companies in its drive to change the narrative in marine mining in the mangrove belt of the country.

Earlier, the Director General of the NACETEM, Dr. Olushola Odusanya, said they were in the state to seek collaboration with the Bayelsa government on the training project for underwater welders.

According to Olushola, Bayelsa is among seven states in the country earmarked for the NACETEM training programme aimed at filling up the huge shortage of certified and employable indigenous welders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

The director-general noted that the average annual income of a certified welder in the industry was over $40,000.

He emphasised the need for effective cooperation between the state and interventionist agencies in the Niger Delta region to train underwater welders to the level of international certification.

•Deputy Governor Ewhrudjakpo hosted the Director General and other top officials of NACETEM in Government House, Yenagoa