– Wants NCDMB to encourage IOCs on local capacity patronage
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Foremost cables manufacturer, Coleman Wires and Cables, has lauded the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, for catalyzing indigenous businesses, stating that the company’s success was a testimony to how impactful the Board has been in the implementation of the NOGICD Act, 2010.
The cable company has also urged the management of NCDMB to continue to encourage international oil companies and Independent Petroleum Producers Group to patronise the company in its areas of competency.
Chief Executive Officer of Coleman Wires and Cables, Mr. George Olutope Onafowokan, during a meeting with the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, in Yenagoa said the company remains sub-Saharan Africa’s largest manufacturer of International Electrotechnical Commission-grade cables
Onafowokan narrating how NCDMB’s implementation of NOGICD Act has been instrumental to the success of the company, prided Coleman as compliant in local content development by manufacturing products within Nigeria and having 100percent Nigerian Content level.
According to him, Coleman Wires and Cables commenced cables production with a capacity of 1,200 metric tons of copper and 800 metric tons of aluminum per annum in 1996 and became a full member of Cable Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, CAMAN in 2001.
He said, “What the NCDMB impact creates is sustainable development and a continuous drive for local content leads to continuous drive for sustainable growth.
“We adhere to international standards concerning the quality and reliability of our products, which guarantees that projects in the oil and gas industry and other industries maintain necessary safety and performance standards.
“Coleman Wires and Cables can collaborate with the NCDMB on initiatives aimed at technology transfer and capacity building within the local workforce, such a move would help to enhance skills and expertise in the manufacturing sector, promoting sustainable development and competitiveness.
“Our technical capabilities and accomplishments include low voltage, medium voltage and high voltage cables, earthing cables and conductors; fibre-optic cables (2-288 fibre cables); submarine EPR cables (LV/HV), and construction of a copper and aluminum smelting plant (3,000 tons of aluminum and 8,000 tons of copper per month).
“At Sagamu, Ogun State, is our ultra-modern fibre-optic cable manufacturing factory with a floor capacity of 40,000 square metres that produces all variants of optic fibre cables. It has capacity to produce nine- million-kilometre fibre count per annum. Products range from 2 core fibre to 508 fibre cables, water blocking, steel reinforcement, etc.”
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, commended Coleman Wires and Cables for its remarkable accomplishments as a world-class manufacturer of top-grade cables for industrial use and other purposes.
Ogbe said he was particularly impressed with the breakthrough which the company has made in the manufacture and deployment of cables for different industries, including fibre-optic cables used in the telecommunication sub-sector, which was hitherto entirely dependent on imports and foreign expertise.
