Chuks Isiwu 27 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, says its new $100 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund, NCI Fund, will be utilised to finance existing and intending manufacturers, oil and gas servicing companies and original equipment manufacturers in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
Specifically, the Fund will help them acquire machinery and ancillary equipment as well as initial stocks or increase in stocks of raw materials, spare parts and components. It will also help in leasing of industrial and business equipment, and marine vessels.
These will go to boost oil and gas operations in the country, according to Acting Executive Secretary of the board, Mr. Patrick Obah.
The NCI Fund was launched last week in Lagos by NCDMB and partners, the Bank of Industry, BOI, at a ceremony which also featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, between NCDMB and BOI, spelling out the conditions for the operation of the Fund. The Bank of Industry is the custodian and manager of the Fund.
Obah said the Fund, sourced from the Nigerian Content Development Fund, NCDF – created by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development, NOGICD, Act – will be accessible to eligible players at a single digit interest rate of 8 per cent.
Other key features of the product include tenor range from 1 to 10 years, maximum moratorium of 12 months (from date of loan disbursement), maximum $10 million obligor limit and speedy processing.
“This Fund was motivated by the desire to re-engineer the operations of the NCDF, increase access and grow indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry,” the Acting Executive Secretary said.
Emphasising that NCDMB will continue to work at expanding the capacity of local companies, Obah invited industry operators to take step toward accessing the Fund, as he disclosed that the collaboration between the board and BOI in operating the Fund is driven by BOI’s expertise and specialisation as a development bank created to speed up the industrialisation of the Nigerian economy.
Also speaking, Acting Managing Director, BOI, Mr. Waheed Olangunju, described the institution of the NCI Fund as a welcome development, expressing hope that the partnership between his bank and NCDMB in its administration would touch the lives of Nigerians.
He also expressed optimism that the Fund would drive industrialisation in the country.
Olagunju stated that the target of the fund would be small, medium and large scale enterprises as he maintained that the coming of the fund would contribute in gradually reducing the nation’s dependence on external sources for materials and expertise.