Implementation Of Nigerian Content’ll Bring Jobs – NCDNMB Scribe

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) said on Thursday that the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGIC) Act was geared to bring Nigerian jobs back home.

The Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr Ernest Nwapa stated this at the ongoing 2012 Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja.

He said the board would ensure that all technology required to develop the local content was deployed to the country to create greater opportunities for Nigerians.

Nwapa said the emphasis of the Federal Government with the implementation of the Act was not only to retain the bulk of the annual oil and gas industry spend in the country, but ultimately to create employment for millions of Nigerians on the back of oil and gas industry operations.

He noted that most countries around the world were currently working towards bringing back jobs for their nationals in the wake of the global economic crisis.

The NCDMB executive secretary said that this agenda of the Federal Government should be supported by all stakeholders, conceding that keeping the cost of production reasonable and meeting work schedules were critical to national revenue.

He said that given Nigeria’s population of over 150 million, the oil and gas industry, which is the main stay of the economy, needed to pay special attention to job creation.

Nwapa explained that NNPC and the operating Joint Ventures could not employ more than 25,000 persons, adding that several thousands of Nigerians would be employed if operating companies put jobs in the yards of local service companies and encouraged their traditional service providers to build facilities in Nigeria to execute their contracts locally.

Nwapa regretted that the preference for importing almost all the goods and services used by the industry from abroad was steadily eliminating opportunities to develop human and infrastructural capacity, consequently impoverishing our people and stultifying national economic development.

“Each major offshore production facility awarded to be fabricated in the traditional Asian fabrication yard translates to the export of over $1 billion dollar capital from the Nigerian economy.

“About 5,000 Nigerian jobs in the two-year engineering and fabrication period and opportunity to train several thousand other Nigerians within same time frame.

“Such decisions also result in lost opportunity to upgrade existing yards and build new ones, crippled opportunity to attract investment for facilities and lost opportunities to grow partnerships between local and foreign companies,’’ he stressed.

Nwapa demanded that such practices must stop, adding that compliance with provisions of the Act called for a drastic change in the way the industry has been run for decades to achieve government’s aspirations.

He maintained that foreign and local investors would not be encouraged to establish facilities in Nigeria with a view to bridging capacity gaps until they were convinced that existing facilities were being patronised by the industry.

He said the board would ensure that all components and equipment used in the oil and gas industry were manufactured in Nigeria, stressing that it was the only way to develop the country’s local content.

The Executive Secretary said the board would also ensure that the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) products or components met the Industry guideline mandates, while all OEMs would domicile the manufacture of equipment components, parts, packages and systems in Nigeria.

“We have issued the Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate (NCEC) to companies that have met the requirements.

“While about 52 applications are being processed, a guideline has been issued to the industry making NCEC a requirement in tenders.’’

Nwapa said that over 6,000 candidates were captured on Joint Qualification System (JQS) Platform while another 500 candidates were attached to O & G Projects.

He also hinted that the board has embarked on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Employment and Training Tracking System (NOGETTS).

According to him, the NCDMB model implies that equipment imported should stand at five per cent while Nigerian owned and done in Nigeria will be 100 per cent.

In another development,  the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Mr Muttaqha Darma, said the agency has also improved tremendously on capacity development.

“We anticipated training about 10,000 graduates in the next five years but presently we have produced up to 6,000 which indicates gross improvement.

“Our objective is to train Nigerians to qualify as graduates, professionals, technicians and craftsmen in the field of engineering, geology, science and management in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria or abroad.

Darma said that under the human capacity development programme, the fund has established ICT projects in all 102 unity schools in Nigeria and dozens of tertiary institutions.

“ Our mission is to serve not only as a vessel for the development of indigenous manpower and technology transfer and acquisition in the petroleum industry to make Nigeria a human resource centre for the West African sub-region.’’