Nigeria's Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has announced plans to open a new Oil and Gas Industrial Skills Training Centre in the Niger Delta region of the country.

Speaking at a press conference in the city of Abuja, ITF director general Professor Longmas Wapmuk explained that the proposed centre would go a long way to addressing the current problem of a lack of skilled local workers within the industry.

He asked the central government to increase funds to the organisation, citing the successes already seen at the Industrial Skills Training Centres in the capital, Lagos, as well as in Jos and Lokoja, where as well as helping to train the next generation of oil professionals, they have also been seen as a solution to the problem of growing violence caused by youth disaffection.

Professor Wampuk argued that, in Nigeria, the development of the oil and gas sector "has been hampered and stifled by the absence of the requisite capacity required in the running of any enterprise".

In 2007 alone, the ITF attracted 6,700 students and professionals from more than 1,400 organisations, not merely restricted to businesses operating in the oil and gas industry.