The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) is making considerable headway in cutting out oil spills during production and processing, the organisation's director general Dr Bamidele Ajakaiye has told Vanguard.

Speaking at a training event hosted by NOSDRA and other partners, including the UK-based Oil Spill Response and the International Maritime Organisation, the head of the organisation said that it was important that it achieved its ambitions using the skills of the national workforce.

"The agency displayed a responsive sense of resource management by bringing experts from Southampton, UK, to train the NOSDRA staff here in Nigeria, instead of sending a few of them to the UK," he explained.

He added that the country held a strong belief in resources management and would utilise local skills to ensure that spills were handled swiftly and effectively.

NOSDRA was set up by presidential decree in order to implement the country's National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which was first drafted in 1981.

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