Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Local content kept Nigeria’s oil and gas industry from shutting down at the peak of COVID19 pandemic, even after many expatriates had left back to their countries, Engr. Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, has said.
Wabote disclosed that at the time many countries totally shut down their economies die to the pandemic, oil and gas production in Nigeria was sustained by local manpower, as a result of local content development.
He spoke on Monday in Port Harcourt, at the Capacity Building Workshop for Media Stakeholders in the South South, with the theme, Nigerian Content Development Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role Of The Media.
The NCDMB boss who spoke virtually, said the workshop was in furtherance of the Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap, as one of its four enablers for attaining the Roadmap, was collaboration and engagement with a broad range of stakeholders that are relevant to the attainment of Local Content goals.
“Like I have emphasized in several fora, Nigerian Content is perhaps the last opportunity we have as a people to extract maximum value from our God-given hydrocarbon resources.
“We must continue to use Nigerian Content to domicile oil and gas industrial activities, create employment opportunities for our people and industrialize our economy.
Technical education key to national development -Wabote
“As you all know, COVID-19 ravaged the world economy and pushed our fragile local economy into recession. But despite the devastating impact of the pandemic, Nigerian Content and Oil and Gas Operations in Nigeria continued, albeit in a restrained form.
“Despite the pandemic, Nigerian Content delivered immense for our country and ensured that operations of the sector continued, even after many expatriates had left back to their countries,” Wabote said.
