27 March 2013, Lagos, Nigeria – The Executive Secretary of the board of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development, NOGICD, Ernest Nwapa has stated that the organization is developing a strategy to increase core competence through capacity and capability development.
Mr. Ernest Nwapa who was speaking at the engineering fair organised by global energy and technology company General Electric, which held at Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos, said that the board is developing a strategy to increase core competence through capability development.
He said some of which are; increase in fabrication yard lifting capacity, establishing training centre of excellence, the enforcement of NOGICD act 2010 schedule requirements, increase in footprint of Turbine and Compressor manufacturing companies in Nigeria.
Ernest Nwapa further stated that NOGICD is focused on maximizing in-country capacity building and utilization in order to promote the doctrine of in country value creation, espoused by the Nigeria Content law, the initial efforts were concentrated on such services commanding the largest industry spend and wherein the country has pre-existing infrastructure.
He commented that the organization did not intend to do this in isolation but with the support of committed partners in progress like GE making huge commitments in the industry, he is optimistic that the goals would be achieved. He mentioned the $1billion dollar investment by GE to build a manufacturing plant in Calabar, Cross River State as a factor that will facilitate growth in the sector.
The GE Engineering fair which was attended by over 50 local Engineering companies, GE Leadership that addressed the prospective supplier partners included: President and CEO for GE in Africa, Jay Ireland and GE Global Supply Chain Leader for Africa leader for Supply Chain, Phillip Griffith.
In his remarks, Ireland noted that Nigeria was a very key and strategic market for foreign investors including GE. He commended Nigeria’s positive outlook in turning around the country’s economy into one that is a force to reckon with in Africa and beyond.
“Today if you mention Nigeria to any business person around the world, they associate the country with the ever increasing opportunities of doing business and making a real difference in growing Africa with Africans. GE will continue to support Nigeria and the rest of Africa to grow economically and be more competitive as an emerging market,” he said.
He also noted that GE is committed to supporting Nigeria’s
industrialisation plan and vision 20:20 which is aimed at making Nigeria one of the top twenty best performing economies by the year 2020”. The key socio-economic imperatives that will be delivered by this investment include; job creation, skills development, technology transfer as well as local content generation are all at the core of the Government’s economic development strategy.
