Oscarline Onwuemenyi
13 November 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote, has said the agency has accomplished all the targets it set for the oil and gas industry for the year 2017.
Speaking at the 2017 Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) workshop held at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Wabote confirmed that both the objectives set by industry stakeholders at 2016 PNC and the ones set internally at the beginning of the year were met.
He said, “We have gone through all of them and we ticked the boxes.”
Wabote, who recently clocked one year in office, recalled that one of his first directives in November 2016 was that operating companies can assume they have received approval for any project if they did not get feedback from the Board within 15 working days. He asserted that this target was met.
“We have streamlined our internal processes such that NCDMB is now positioned to review contracts within 100 days, provided submitted documents are in line with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act. We have demonstrated this in the last one year as evidenced in the unprecedented completion time of tendering process for the Zabazaba project.”
Further evidence is that the Board jointly developed and signed a Service Level Agreement with the NLNG – a first by any government agency.
“We have written to the OPTS to jointly draw up similar agreements to ensure NCDMB’s role in contracting process is clear and transparent in line with the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business,” he added.
Continuing, Wabote said the Board had expanded its operations to the midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.
“We are now part of NLNG business activities. We visited Dangote refineries where we agreed on steps to involve more Nigerian companies with capacities in the development of the project to meet cost and schedule timelines.
“A compendium of ancillary businesses required to sustain operation of the refinery is under development to support the operational phase of the huge 650,000 barrels/day refinery,” he stated.
He reiterated that the $200m Nigerian Content Intervention Fund had been launched for oil and gas service providers that are contributors to the Nigerian Content Development Fund.
He said, “The intervention fund has all-in single digit interest rate of eight percent for loans extended to Nigerian Oil and Gas Service providers and all-in single digit interest rate of five percent for loans extended to community contractors.”
The Executive Secretary also reported that the Board signed the Research and Development Guidelines with key industry stakeholders earlier in the year.
“We also held the highly successful Research and Development Fair and Conference two months ago and we are building on that momentum to set up a R&D Steering Committee to guide our R&D Implementation plan. Other initiatives such as R&D Centers of Excellence, ‘Adopt a Faculty’ Program, and others are also being progressed.”
On Sectorial Linkages, he said the Board is at the forefront of advocacy for the utilization of in-country capacities beyond the oil and gas industry. “We have local capacities in manufacturing of pipelines, cables, paints, etc that can be utilized in the construction and power sectors of the economy.
“Our service providers are also being encouraged to venture into the construction sector to utilize their equipment and project delivery expertise.”
Other achievements according to the Executive Secretary include the launch of the upgraded Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System (NOGICJQS) platform so that transactions such as applications for expatriate quota, Nigerian Content equipment certificates, Marine vessel categorization and several other requests could be carried out online.
Giving further details of the Board’s performance in the last one year, Wabote said the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme was being progressed in five oil producing states.
He indicated that “one key progress we have made in the last one year is to put in place a firm arrangement for provision of 24/7 power supply to the industrial parks as they materialize. This is a core enabler for domiciliation of manufacturing in-country.”
The NCDMB boss also harped on the Board’s efforts to aggregate industry business plans, which culminated in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) held in March. As part of the outcome, we compiled a compendium of industry opportunities.”
