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The Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity (AOGC) program has secured a $4.5m program to push 200 Ghanaians into skilled upstream oil and Gas jobs.

According to the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, this will ensure that increasingly more of the jobs in the upstream sector are now done by Ghanaians.

“Training starts in January and by December 2019 the last cohort should have been completed,” he told journalist at a bi-weekly press briefing Wednesday.

President Akufo-Addo launched the program in November 2017 in fulfilment of his manifesto promise to create opportunities for Ghanaians in the upstream sector.

The aims of the project include developing the capacity of Ghanaians in Core technical areas such as welding and metal fabrication, pipe fitting, non-destructive test technicians, drilling engineers, mechanical technicians, etc so that they can take roles and job opportunities in the sector.

“It is also targeted at developing the capacities of Ghanaian technical and vocational institutions as well as universities to offer world-class training and certifications for the oil and gas industry,” the Ofoase Ayeribi legislator said.

Since the launch, the AOGC Secretariat has been established under the Petroleum Commission to see to the realization of these objectives.

One of its significant successes so far is securing $4.5 million from Aker Energy to provide technical training and certifications.

This is to train mechanical technicians, electrical technicians, instrumentation technicians, welders and metal fabricators, NDT Technicians.

It will ensure that they will all acquire BOSIET (Basic Offshore Induction and Emergency training) at the same time to facilitate their smooth transition into the upstream petroleum sector as qualified technicians.