In a bid to achieve the objectives of the Contents Development Policy of the Federal Government in the oil and gas sector, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has urged critical stakeholders and agencies to be proactive in policy implementation.
Chairman of the Port Harcourt Zonal Council of NUPENG, Comrade Alex Agwanwor gave the charge while speaking in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt last weekend.
The NUPENG boss disclosed that agencies such as the Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR), National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the Nigeria Immigration Services, among others should be proactive in the discharge of their duties to check tendencies of infiltration in the oil sector by foreigners.
He pointed out that most of the “so-called expatriates”, that flood the country to work were mere labourers who came to take over the jobs that can be handled by Nigerians.
He said NUPENG was pivotal to the establishment of the local content policy which encouraged the involvement of local entrepreneurs in the oil and gas sector. In his assessment of the policy so far, he said Nigerians have benefited immensely as most fabrication works in the oil and gas sector were now handled by Nigerians.
“Today, Nigerians are involved in deep offshore drilling, Nigerian companies now run OML, it wasn’t like that before, the achievements are the out-come of the local Content policy”.
He further disclosed that there were still major constraints to cope with, to achieve greater impact in the content development policy. Such constraints he noted, include lack of access to fund.
“Most local contractors do not have access to fund to cope with global competition. The Jonathan administration came up with a fund meant to be accessed by local contractors to boost their participation in the oil and gas sector, today, less than 10 percent of local entrepreneurs have access to such fund due to rigorous processes and other institutional setbacks. The policy should be liberalised for local contractors to have access to the right funding to enable them compete globally”.
He said NUPENG, as a body, was ready to play its complementary role towards achieving the objective of the local content policy, as it has encouraged its members to play key role in the oil and gas sector.
“Nigerians understand their environments better; they know how them better than foreigners. All we need is the right incentive to promote indigenous technological growth; technology cannot be transferred in Nigeria when we depend on foreigners for our technological development”.