The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has expressed hopes that a 70 per cent local content policy implementation in the execution of projects and programmes in the nation’s oil and gas industry will be achieved in the next two years, 2027.
At the moment, the country has been able to achieve a 56 per cent implementation, being one of the major gains of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010.
The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, made the remark during an interactive session with the visiting team of ranking military officers from the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), at the NCDMB Corporate Headquarters, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Last Thursday.
Represented by the Director, Corporate Services and Capacity Building, Dr. Ama Ikuru, Ogbe observed that the Nigerian Army had raised the bar in research and development as well as local content, in relation to human capital development and local manufacturing of some components used in military operations.
According to him, the earlier phase was marked by capital flight amounting to an estimated US$380 billion, loss of two million jobs as a result of human capital deficits, and less than five per cent in local content.
He said upon the enactment of the NOGICD Act, there has been a phenomenal development of in-country capacity and capabilities as a result of creative enforcement and monitoring of industry operations as well as strategic interventions by the NCDMB.
Ogbe declared that the NCDMB aimed to ensure that equipment and tools as well as services required for oil and gas operations are made and procured in Nigeria.
“We take research and development seriously”, he noted, citing the centres of excellence established, equipped and funded by the Board in the six universities, one in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
While conducting the guests, which comprised officers between the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and General currently undergoing an 11-month leadership and strategic course 3/2024 and on local study tour round different sections and facilities of the board, Ogbe took the team through the board’s Technology Innovation and Incubation Centre (TIIC), underscoring the success story in aiding individuals with innovative ideas and facilitating technology adaptation and process improvement.
In further elaboration of the board’s activities and engagements, the Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Alhaji Abdulmalik Halilu, noted that there was a history of “mutually beneficial partnership between the army and the NCDMB”, citing the involvement of the board’s personnel as resource persons at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
According to him, “It is good the military sees NCDMB as a partner”.
In his remarks, the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Esueme Dan Kikile, said the visit of the military officers afforded the board and guests a useful platform for interaction and knowledge sharing, urging the guests to tell the success story of the NCDMB everywhere.
Team leader for the military officers, Major General Abubakar A. Tarfa (rtd), explained that the local study tour was part of an 11-month course revealing that members of the team were made up of professionals in diverse fields including engineering, medicine, nursing, and administration.
He said the course was designed to prepare participants for higher responsibilities, adding that the tour would provide necessary exposure to having the officers acquainted with the NCDMB and its role and monitoring programmes that “ensures steady growth in local content in the oil and gas industry”.
Tarfa explained that there is a relationship between leadership, strategy and national security, insisting that the training and associated activities underline such realities.
He said, “military assistance to civil authority for oil production in the Niger Delta toward national development” was a major motivating factor in their study tour of the state.
Speaking on behalf of participants, Lt. Col. Juliet Aziekwu expressed appreciation for the interactive session, saying “We are better informed about the NCDMB and its role, we’ll put the knowledge into use”.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Deputy Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, noted that “there is a nexus between what the military officers were in the state to do and what the NCDMB does, that is, capacity building”.