OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2016. BG Group is investing \\$1.45 million over 5 years to help equip people living in East Africa with the skills needed to secure job opportunities in the emerging oil and gas sector.

The programme, known as “Skills for Oil and Gas in Africa” (SOGA), is an initiative by the UK’s Department for International Development, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is being delivered by the German international development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and will deliver training on-the-ground in countries, including Tanzania and Kenya, where BG Group operates.

SOGA’s vision is to significantly expand the benefits for local people and companies from new oil and gas development in East Africa.  The initiative is designed to improve the local availability of required skills, goods and services. It will enable local people to access jobs and economic opportunities expected to be generated in the supply chains associated with investments in the oil and gas sector in the years ahead.
Partners include international oil companies, major suppliers and contractors, host governments and development agencies. SOGA facilitates industry-wide collaboration to ensure the development of relevant and high-quality skills in the local economy.

Sonja Palm, SOGA Programme Director, GIZ, says:

"We are delighted that BG Group has joined SOGA and is contributing considerable funding to our projects across the SOGA target region and especially in Tanzania where it has interests. BG Group has shown strong support for the initiative from the start and we are very much looking forward to continue working with BG Group towards developing better skills and employment opportunities in East Africa."

Ramanie Kunanayagam, BG Group Head of Social Performance, says:

"BG Group is very pleased to become a founding member of the SOGA initiative.  This partnership breaks new ground, providing opportunity for local communities to gain the skills and experiences needed to access employment opportunities in and around the emerging oil and gas industry. Simultaneously companies will be enabled to respond to the strong expectations from host governments and societies. The SOGA initiative provides the opportunity for scale, leveraged funding and additional technical expertise that no single partner can provide on its own.  We hope through our partnership, we can jointly illustrate the value adding benefits from such a public private sector collaboration".