The Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige today asserted that the choice of Nigeria by the Ivorian Government to under study good practices relating to regulation of work and collective bargaining in the Oil and Gas Sector was an indication that the Change Agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari led administration is yielding a positive result.
The Minister made this assertion when he received on working visit a delegation from Cote d’ Ivoire, led by Danho Patrick Martial, Head Office of Hydrocarbons who is in the country to understudy Nigeria’s experience in the Oil and Gas Sector.
According to him, “I wish to commend you for your choice of Nigeria as the Country to study its mode of operation in the Oil and Gas Sector of the Economy. Your visit is a living testimony of the bond of cordial relationship existing between the Government of Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire”
Furthermore, Ngige stated that the study mission will provide a rare opportunity for both countries to evolve more common agenda and strategies for enhanced Sub-regional Cooperation and Solidarity.
“Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire have a similar background generally in economic development anchored on Agricultural and Mineral Resources which places both countries as leaders in their own rights. It is expected that both Countries should evolve more common agenda and strategies for enhanced Sub-regional Cooperation and Solidarity in line with the spirit of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This study mission, therefore, offers one of the rare opportunity that can be explored for the initiation and promotion of such ideas”
Ngige emphasized that the visit was timely as the study will provide a more realistic industrial relations strategy for dealing with the challenges of economic recovery which will require a concerted effort of stakeholders to support government policies aimed at tackling economic challenges facing the Sub-region.
“This mission could not have taken place at a better time than now in the history of the two nations where democratic governance is still at its nascent age.” The Minister emphasized.
He added that Nigeria may have a little lesson to learn from the viability of Cote d’Ivoire’s refinery adjudged one of the best in Africa and which has been in operation for 15 unbroken years without major hitches.
Earlier in his remark the head of the Ivorian delegation Mr Danho Patrick Martial said that the visit was a reflection of the cordial relationship between the two countries, adding that the idea of visiting Nigeria was initiated by the Ivorian Minister of Social Protection and Employment, Jean-Claude Kouassi who instructed a study of best practices relating to regulation of work and collective agreement in the Oil and Gas Sector with a view to bringing lasting solution to the recurring industrial crisis in the Ivorian Oil and Gas Sector
JJ San on
Samuel Olowookere
Deputy Director (Press)
