Ediri EJOH

As part of its contribution towards addressing the issue of unemployment in the country, Arco petrochemical Engineering Company, said it has engaged about 400 Nigerians in different areas of its operations.

The Group Managing Director of ARCO Petrochemical Engineering Company, Mr. Alfred Okoigun who disclosed this at the recent dinner held as part of the events of the Nigeria oil and gas conference in Abuja, said there has been a great increase in staffing of over 400 personnel that has been engaged and been rendering skilled labour.

He said, “only few days ago, we lost some young job seekers in the recruitment process of a government agency. Whether we are in the government or in the private sector, we can vividly see that this issue of youth unemployment is a reality.

“When Arco started business 34 years ago, it was with a couple of hands, but today we have over 400 personnel on our payroll and 200 of them are engineers and technicians.”

He noted that the country is in a dire need of indigenous companies to partner and invest in the industry. “I would like to seize the opportunity of this occasion to appeal to all concerned to recognize the changing trends in the oil and gas industry in Nigerian and facilitate it instead of looking for loopholes to circumvent it.”

However, he said Arco Group has been working earnestly with Total upstream towards the realization of the objectives of local content law.
Continuing, he urged majors in the oil and gas industry to increase their efforts towards developing Nigerian companies to be active participants in the sector.

Okoigun said, “my message is that the key players in the industry owe us an obligation in Nigeria to take advantage of the law to grow Nigerian companies to be viable participants in the industry even at this late hour.

“I am not saying that they should be philanthropic to a fault, but beyond making money, there must be a legacy to boast of. I make this case, not just for Arco, but for other wholly Nigerian companies operating in the oil and gas industry.

“I am of the opinion that the changes taking place now, can encourage other Nigerians investors to come into the business to boost employment of our youths.”