Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin
Lagos — The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, has expressed profound gratitude to industry stakeholders, top-ranking vendors and staff of the Board for their contributions to the success of the Practical Nigerian Content, PNC Forum 2024.
Speaking at the official closing ceremony of the four-day event at the Conference Centre of the Nigerian Content Tower, NCT, he said their active participation enriched discussions as the Board charts a pathway to the next frontier for Nigerian Content implementation.
Engr. Ogbe reiterated the Board’s determination to deepen engagements with local communities and oil and gas industry players through sundry schemes newly introduced, such as the Back-to-the-Creeks Initiative, the Revised Nigerian Content Community Contractors Financing Scheme, Nigerian Content Academy, and creation of more conducive and befitting zonal offices to enhance service delivery by the Board.
According to him, the Back-to-the-Creeks policy is designed to equip youths with the skills to meet industry demands through improvement of basic educational facilities and motivation of teachers. In regard to the Contractors Financing Scheme, he explained that the Board has increased the single obligor limit from N20 million to N100 million.
He noted: “What that does is that it gives more opportunities for local contractors to be able to access higher figures to enable them to secure and execute meaningful contracts in the oil and gas industry. In that way, the Scheme would serve as a mechanism to bring the benefits of local content to communities.”
The Executive Secretary, who was represented by the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Barr. Esueme Dan Kikile, expressed joy that the Board’s partnership with the Bank of Industry, BOI, is working well, that performance is at optimal level, and that the new funding scheme would be hugely beneficial to local contractors.
On the Nigerian Content Academy, he said NCDMB has the experience, the capacity in-house, and the understanding of what it means to practice Nigerian Content, having done that for 14 years, and that he believed the industry would take advantage of what the training facility has to offer.
Acknowledging the invaluable input of experts of diverse backgrounds in various panel discussions, Engr. Ogbe requested the NCDMB partner, DMG events Limited, to develop key actionable points from the PNC Forum that will guide the industry as it moves to the next frontier of Nigerian Content implementation.
He assured all industry stakeholders that the Board would continue to collaborate with them to fulfil its mandate as set out in its enabling statute, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development, NOGICD, Act, 2010.
Earlier on, resource persons made presentations on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA, and Marine Accelerator Programme (an initiative of the Oil Producers Trade Section, comprising the international oil companies), as well as a Spotlight on Youth Empowerment Pathways.
The Senior Trade Policy and Law Expert at the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office, Abuja, Mr. Olusegun Olutayo, who spoke on the topic “AfCFTA: A Panacea for Africa’s Economic Rebirth,” explained the potential benefits of the Agreement by throwing light on its eight Protocols, namely, Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), Investment, Competition Policy, Digital Trade, and Women and Youth in Trade.
According to him, “It is within these Eight Protocols that prosperity, integration, economic revolution and industrialisation actually comes.” He added that AfCFTA is the way to go. AfCFTA came into force in 2018 after ratification in Rwanda in July 2028, with the aim of facilitating economic integration, trade and investment among African countries.
On the Marine Accelerator Programme, MAP, sponsored by the OPTS in conjunction with the NLNG Shipping and Marine Services Limited, NSML, based in Bonny, Rivers State, the issue, according to the presenter, was: “A Quality Reassessment shows that the challenges in the marine services industry four years ago still persist.” Definite measures were required to make offshore operations in the industry safer through MAP.
The pilot programme, consisting of seven modules, was launched in May 2025 and focused on priority vessels. With the remarkable success of the pilot phase, the OPTS is set to launch the next wave of the marine accelerator training in the first quarter of 2025.
The Spotlight on Youth Empowerment Pathway, YEP, focused on “The YEP Model: A Unique Approach to Employment,” and was presented by Mr. Tunji Idowu, Executive Director and Managing Trustee, PIND.
It dwelt on Workforce Development, which highlighted the imperative and strategies for bridging skills gaps, among other things, ecosystem strengthening, government engagement and partnerships, as well as YEP’s future vision-scaling for sustainability.
Panel discussions in three different sessions dwelt on “Nigerian Content Beyond Borders,” “Nigerian Content from the Grassroots: Community Capacity Building,” and “From Policy to Practice: Strengthening Domestication for Economic Development.”
The PNC 2024, ended with a site visit by oil and gas industry captains to First Marine and Engineering Services Limited, FMES, shore base facility in Yenagoa. The PNC 2024 is the 13th edition of the annual event, which is dedicated to deepening Nigerian Content across the energy sector to support the country’s energy sufficiency goals.
