Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin
Lagos — The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe has commended Coleman Wires and Cables for its remarkable accomplishments as a world-class manufacturer of top-grade cables for industrial use and other purposes.
The NCDMB boss was particularly impressed with the breakthrough 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.
At a meeting at the Nigerian Content Tower, NCT, Yenagoa on Wednesday, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Coleman Wires and Cables, Mr. George Olutope Onafowokan, narrated how the NCDMB and the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Development, NOGICD, Act have been instrumental to the success of the company.
Mr. Onafowokan stated that his team was at the NCT to brief the Executive Secretary on the impact of the NCDMB on the company. In his remarks which he prefaced with the words “Coleman and NOGICD Act,” he praised NCDMB for catalysing indigenous businesses, stating that his company’s success is a testimony to how impactful the Board has been in the implementation of the NOGICD Act, 2010.
According to the Coleman boss, What the NCDMB impact creates is sustainable development and a continuous drive for local content leads to a continuous drive for sustainable growth.
Onafowokan assured the NCDMB of the quality and reliability of its products, adhering to international standards, which guarantee that projects in the oil and gas industry and other industries maintain necessary safety and performance standards.
According to him, Coleman Wires and Cables can collaborate with the NCDMB on initiatives aimed at technology transfer and capacity building within the local workforce, noting that such a move would help to enhance skills and expertise in the manufacturing sector, promoting sustainable development and competitiveness.
He urged the NCDMB Management to continue to encourage the international oil companies, IOCs, and Independent Petroleum Producers Group, IPPG, to patronise the company in its areas of competency.
Coleman Wires and Cables commenced cables production with a capacity of 1,200 metric tons of copper and 800 metric tons of aluminium per annum in 1996 and became a full member of the Cable Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CAMAN) in 2001.
Coleman Wires and Cables, with its corporate headquarters at Arepo, Ogun State, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest manufacturer of International Electrotechnical Commission-grade cables. It prides itself as compliant in local content development by manufacturing products within Nigeria and having 100% Nigerian Content level.
The company’s technical capabilities and accomplishments as presented by its CEO 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 aluminium smelting plant (3,000 tons of aluminium and 8,000 tons of copper per month).
At Sagamu, Ogun State is the company’s 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 the capacity “to produce nine- nine-million-kilometre fibrecount per annum. Products range from 2-core fibre to 508 fibre cables, water blocking, steel reinforcement, etc.
