The Nigerian Content Development and Management Board (NCDMB) has Pledged continuous support to Nigerian businesses to excel by remaining committed to the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, enacted in 2010.
The commitment was made on Thursday in Port Harcourt at an engagement with Niger Delta Media Stakeholders and Youths on Port Harcourt.
Between 2010 when the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act was enacted, paving way for the birth of the Nigerian Content Development and Management Board, NCDMB, ease of doing business in Nigeria, especially in the nation’s oil and gas sector has been redefined.
NCDMB has assisted, funded and guided businesses to thrive in the oil and gas sector to thrive, while also ensuring the monitoring of the activities of firms with foreign interests, making them to comply with the local content policy in the area of staffing, engineering, procurement and construction.
These were disclosed on Thursday by NCDMB’s Director of Corporate Services, Dr Abdulmalik Halilu during an interactive session with Niger Delta media stakeholders and youth bodies in Port Harcourt.
Halilu said the NCDMB, in giving expression to the NODICD Act, had achieved a partial integration of major Floating, Production, Storage and Storage and Offloading platforms in the country and added that fabrication and manpower services have significantly increased.
He said the board has so far lived up to expectations in its core mandate of developing local capacities and capabilities without compromising standards as provided for in the Act.
He further disclosed that over 100 indigenous companies with EPC(exploration, production and construction) capabilities have made giant strides in the country, while about 15,000 Nigerians have been trained in skills such as welding, marine operations, PMT design engineering under the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN).
The NEXIM bank, he noted, has also deployed the Nigerian content intervention fund in excess of $350 million to local companies to buoy up their operations, while youths from different parts of the country have also been trained and empowered to enable them function in the oil and gas sector.
Dr Obinna Ezeobi, the board’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, had urged the media to live to its core responsibility of gate-keeping and agenda setting in the discharge of its professional duties.
He said it was unfortunate that some practitioners allowed their platforms to be used to propagate falsehood against the board, including the publication of outright lies, urging media stakeholders to uphold the tenets of the profession at all times.
Apparently addressing youth leaders, Ezeobi said it was important for them to realise that the NCDMB had a mandate clearly outlined in the Act establishing it and did not intend to derail from the focus, but urged them not to expect the board to embark on projects which were clearly not part of its mandate.
According to him, there were intervention agencies created by the federal government for such purposes, but that the NCDMB did not have such a mandate and should not be expected to play such roles.
The NOGICD Act of 2010 establishes NCDMB as the sole agency of the Federal Government that is responsible for driving Nigerian Content in the oil and gas industry.
