Tanya Davidson
Abuja — The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, is positioning its Nigerian Content Academy to become a wider training platform for Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, as operators and other industry stakeholders seek specialised knowledge of the regulatory processes governing local content.
The Academy has launched the LearnFest Lecture Series, an internal knowledge-sharing initiative that NCDMB says will also lay the foundation for expanding its specialised training programmes to industry stakeholders.
Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, said operators, oilfield service companies, industry associations, academic institutions and government agencies had already expressed interest in sending their personnel to the Academy for training.
He said the initiative would help build a common understanding of Nigerian Content tools and regulatory processes among NCDMB staff and industry players.
Industry participants would need to understand areas including the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010, the Board’s human-capital development guidelines, Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate, Nigerian Content Plans, statutory reporting and expatriate quota requirements, he said.
Bamidele said LearnFest would help prepare the ground for the Academy’s broader training role.
“LearnFest will make our work easier,” he said.
He disclosed that NCDMB was building a faculty for the Nigerian Content Academy, with presenters in the lecture series potentially forming part of the faculty.
“The people presenting [the lectures] could form part of our faculty,” Bamidele said, adding that participants’ feedback would help assess the suitability of resource persons.
The Board’s management has also approved its purpose-built facility at Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as a training centre for the Academy’s programmes.
The LearnFest initiative was inaugurated with a three-hour session attended by NCDMB staff at the Board’s headquarters in Yenagoa.
The maiden session focused on the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate, with Manager, Planning and Policy Development, Engr. Mofe Megbele, presenting on its activities and processes.
The presentation covered areas including planning and policy development, expatriate quota, research and development, technology commercialisation, Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Joint Qualification System, the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum and stakeholder engagement.
According to the Nigerian Content Academy, the Board’s institutional knowledge is spread across seven directorates, each with distinct mandates, processes and expertise.
The Academy said LearnFest was designed to break down those institutional silos and help staff understand how the different parts of the Board work together.
“When we understand what others do, we collaborate better, support one another better, and work as one integrated ecosystem,” the Academy said.
The lecture series will hold monthly for the next nine months, with a different NCDMB directorate featured at each edition.
While attendance is mandatory for NCDMB staff, the Board said oil and gas industry stakeholders would be able to participate in subsequent editions.
