The Ghanaian civil service has called upon its management to encourage the development of the entire nation through training programmes, after the discovery of oil in the west African state.

Chief director of the office of the head of the civil service Mrs Rebecca Aboagye told middle-management executives at a recent ethical leadership training conference that the oil find needed to be handled properly to ensure maximum gains.

According to All Africa, she said: "We have found oil, so we need professionals in all spheres of life to manage this precious mineral well, so that it will not become a curse but a blessing."

Furthering this, she called for public sector executives to embark on a training and development programme to ensure that they could organise manpower appropriate to the needs of oil firms that will come to operate in the region in the future.

Earlier this month, Punch reported that Mr Ross Agazuma, vice-president of Global Maritime for West Africa, has explained that the need to create a highly skilled domestic workforce was the principal reason for the development of the new Petroleum Training Institute in Ghana.

Oil and Gas Directory: Training and Development