Directors of African oil institutions and training managers fine tune process in Yaounde.

One of the vacuums identified by the African Petroleum Producers' Association (APPA), an intergovernmental organisation created in 1987 in Lagos, Nigeria, to serve as a platform for African petroleum producing countries is the near absence of training of its human resources. This aspect considered very crucial in the efficient management of oil in member countries has been the centre of interest during the past years epitomised by the establishment of the African Petroleum Institute (AFPI) headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.

In order to better organise the training scheme, directors of oil institutions and trainers have been meeting in conferences code name, Conference of Directors of Training Institutions and Officers in Charge of Training in the Petroleum Domain from APPA Member countries (CoDiReF) to draw up an institutional framework within which to operate. The third of such conferences opened in Yaounde's Mont Febe hotel yesterday to size up the recommendations of the last meeting that took place in Cotonou and the execution of the 2013 action plan. The Yaounde meeting is equally occasion for participants to install the staff of AFPI and set in motion activities of the institution.

The training scheme as explained by Bakary Traore, APPA Assistant Executive Secretary in Charge of Technical Affairs, is coordinated by CoDiReF which remains a non permanent structure set up to among others: identify and prioritise training needs of member countries, promote training institutions of member countries of APPA, promote the use of tools and infrastructure of member countries, facilitate exchange of training experiences and promote cooperation towards training of human resources. In this vein, experts at the Mont Febe confab are working towards establishing a synergy of actions between AFPI and training institutions of member nations.

Working under two main themes, one concerned with putting in place a synergy of actions for AFPI and the other on putting in place a training strategy for human resources, participants are expected to emerge with an examined text for the institution, an action plan for 2014 and an implementation strategy with focus on budgeting and financing.

Jean-Jacques Koum, APPA National Representative for Cameroon presided at the opening ceremony on behalf of Adolphe Moudiki, Cameroon's Plenipotentiary at the APPA Council of Ministers.