NNPC TO SUPPORT LOCAL INVESTORS ON ADVANCEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY

ABUJA, Nigeria – The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has said that the corporation was committed to supporting local investors towards growing the engineering profession, even as he noted that this would in turn ensure technological advancement of the nation’s oil and gas industry.

Dr. Baru disclosed this while speaking at the induction ceremony of the Group Managing Director of ARCO Group, Engr. Alfred Irabor Okoigun, with the Honourary Fellowship of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), in Lagos, Thursday.

“NNPC will continue to support ARCO Group and many other indigenous companies alike so that your story and the story of others will continue to be savoured by generations yet unborn,” Dr. Baru stated. Engr. Okoigun established ARCO Petrochemical Engineering Company Ltd in 1980 after a two-year stint as a Material Management Officer with NNPC’s Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).

The company has since grown over the last three decades to become a conglomerate that not only deals in engineering and maintenance, but has also diversified into marine logistics, maritime security, pipelines & facilities inspection, property development and consumer power generation. Congratulating Engr. Alfred on his fellowship by the nation’s foremost engineering academy, Dr. Baru said he was a leading example in the development and promotion of engineering education in the country.

“This fellowship is a testament of your distinguished leadership and contribution to the Engineering profession as well as your outstanding achievements and contributions towards the well-being of the society at large,” Baru added.

He also commended the NAE for promoting policies that ensure the advancement of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation for a better economy and society. He said in the academy’s twenty-one years of existence, it has proven to be the national “Think Tank” for Engineering and Technology, adding that “we in the NNPC are proud to be associated with you.”

Speaking earlier, the President of the Academy, Engr. (Mrs.) J. O. Maduka described the fellowship conferred on Engr. Okoigun as well-deserved following his contributions to the development of Engineering education in Nigeria.

She charged him to be a good ambassador of the Academy by striving to do more for the Engineering profession as several young engineers are looking up to him for his remarkable achievements. In his lecture at the occasion, former Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos, Prof. Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe called on innovators in the Engineering profession to look towards providing solutions that would make the world a better place to for all.

Established in 1997, the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a non-profit and non-governmental institution for the promotion of excellence in Engineering training and practice to ensure the technological growth of Nigeria.

The Academy is a national “Think Tank” for Engineering and Technology that provides leadership in national engineering and technological issues by conducting studies and research on relevant issues and making inputs to developmental policies at the highest possible level.