29 April 2013, Yenagoa – The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, said on Monday that the Nigerian Content Law helped to develop capacity of Nigerians in the oil industry within three years.
Mr Ernest Nwapa, the Executive Secretary of the board, told News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Yenagoa that since the law came into effect in April 2010, the oil industry had witnessed rapid advancement especially in the area of job creation.
“Everybody knows where we were before the law was passed by Mr President; this whole thing was so important that one of the first things Mr President did even as acting President was to sign the law
“And since he signed the law and established the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, the industry has not been the same again; things that people thought could not be done here are now being done here; and people have appetite to do more.
“We have journeyed on the human capacity side; we have journeyed on the job creation;, we have journeyed on the tonnages that are now being done in Nigeria that were never done before; we are looking at the first time an FPSO topside would be integrated in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
“It will happen in Nigeria under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan; it will happen.”
According to Nwapa, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the board, within three years from the enactment of the Act in 2010, the oil industry has grown by 18 per cent from total dependence on foreign inputs.
He explained that though between 70 and 87 per cent of contracts awarded in the sector were given to Nigerian companies, it did not reflect real growth.
He, therefore, said that the 18 per cent growth so far recorded, represented what the industry spent on materials sourced in Nigeria.
The executive secretary said that the board was pursuing a holistic development of the oil and gas value chain to ensure that more Nigerians participated in the sector.
