Mkpoikana Udoma
Yenagoa — A major financing breakthrough emerged Tuesday at the 14th Practical Nigerian Content Forum, PNC 2025, as the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, unveiled a $100 million equity investment scheme for indigenous energy service companies, marking the Board’s most aggressive push yet to scale local content through risk-capital injection.
The scheme, launched through an MoU jointly signed by NCDMB Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, and Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, is designed to address a longstanding gap: the lack of equity funding for Nigerian companies seeking to scale in a capital-intensive sector dominated by foreign balance sheets.
“This equity scheme is a new product in our Nigerian Content Intervention Fund,” Ogbe announced. “It will provide high-growth indigenous companies with the capital they need to expand, innovate and compete globally.”
The new equity window marks a strategic shift from traditional debt financing, allowing Nigerian firms to pursue larger projects, attract partnerships and de-risk expansions.
Beyond financing, NCDMB also rolled out its strictest compliance regime yet, announcing that the long-awaited NCDF Compliance Certificate will become mandatory from January 1, 2026 for all companies seeking permits and approvals.
“The certificate confirms compliance with the 1% remittance obligations,” Ogbe said. “From January 2026, no company will secure key approvals without it.”
He added that the Board has already begun cracking down on illicit middlemen manipulating the Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate, NCEC, system.
“Our certificates will no longer be transferable effective January 1, 2026,” he said. “Entities without NCECs will not be admitted into the tendering process.”
Ogbe also revealed progress across flagship programmes, including 94 disbursements under the Community Contractors Scheme in 2025 and significant milestones toward onboarding a new batch of Project 100 companies by April 2026.
The Executive Secretary disclosed that Nigerian Content levels across monitored projects have risen from 56% to 61%, driven by tighter monitoring of developments such as Bonga North, Renaissance EPU Phase 3, Ubeta Gas Development, AKK pipeline, OB3, ELPS Phase 3 and NLNG Train 7.
“The work before us is significant, but so is the opportunity,” Ogbe said, urging industry players to embrace the new compliance era. “Nigerian Content remains central to our national development and industrialisation.”
For his part, BOI boss, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, confirmed BOI’s readiness to deploy the fund under strict governance and due diligence protocols.
“The $100 million NCIF Equity Fund will strengthen access to long-term risk financing and support scale, competitiveness, job creation and technology transfer,” he said. “With a $5 million single obligor limit, we are targeting high-impact investments that can transform the sector.”
The NCDMB- BOI equity financing deal and the 2026 compliance mandate were widely viewed by stakeholders as the most consequential announcements of PNC 2025, setting the tone for a deeply regulated but robustly financed local content landscape in the coming year.
