Nigeria's oil and gas industry is being bolstered by a new initiative aimed at training native construction professionals.

Organised by the Southern African Institute of Welding (SAIW) and the Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW), the training programme comes on the back of a recent directive from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which stated that oil companies working in the country are to use locally-produced equipment in the exploration, processing and transportation processes.

More specifically, the certification of welding procedures and welders themselves need to be carried out in Nigeria, the directive stated.

Commenting on the programme, NIW president Solomon Edebiri told South Africa's Engineering News: "The first step was, with the help of the SAIW, to conduct an eight-week assessment and training of 80 of these welders so that they could be certified to internationally accredited ISO 9606 standards. Nigerian instructors will also be trained."

He added that the NNPC, which is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, already has a strong pool of skilled construction workers, many of whom come from Nigeria or neighbouring South Africa, though this latest move marks a step closer to the development of a pan-Sub-Saharan professional body for the sector.