By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) says it has recorded 56% Nigerian Content level growth in the oil and gas sector as of 2024.
Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Felix Ogbe, disclosed this in his address at the 13th edition of the Practical Nigeria Content (PNC) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, yesterday with the theme ‘‘Defining the New Frontier of Nigerian Content Implementation”.
Ogbe, explained that the Board was able to grow the Nigerian Content level from 26 per cent in 2016 to 56 per cent as at 2028, indicating a 30 per cent increase in eight years. This was as he said the Board has also earmarked N15 billion for its Community Contractors Financing Scheme, an initiative that seeks to address the critical challenge faced by local contractors’ limited access to funding for contracts awarded by oil and gas companies.
It added that the single obligor limit under the scheme has now been increased from N20 million to N100 million.
The NCDMB boss highlighted some milestones achieved in the last seven years and also unveiled new initiatives that will take the Board closer to its 2027 target.
One of such interventions is ‘Back to the Creek’, an initiative that focuses on equipping youths in host communities with the skills needed to meet industry demands, directly supporting the local content drive. This initiative, he said, aligns closely with the mandate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
The initiative, he said, will be implemented in three phases: first, the improvement of primary education infrastructure; next, the enhancement of secondary education; and finally, providing scholarships and facilitating employment opportunities for top-performing students from oil-producing communities.
“Our enabling law, the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, charges the Board with a clear mandate: to build the capacity of Nigerian companies and individuals to actively participate in the oil and gas industry.
To fulfill this mandate, in 2017, the Board launched the 10-Year Strategic Roadmap which is built on 5 Strategic pillars and supported by four Enablers.”
According to him, some of our achievements include; commissioning of Amal Technologies in Idu, Abuja; and the Kwale Gas Gathering facility in Delta State, approval of 312 Nigerian Content Plans were approved, and 402 Nigerian Content Compliance Certificates (NCCCs) were issued.
while the new PCAD contracting guidelines which has reduced touch points from 9 to 5, while the contracting cycle has been reduced to six-months
On strategic partnerships, he said the Board has unveiled the Bell Oil and Gas’ 50,000 metric-ton integrated Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) facility at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, commissioning of 10,000 MT capacity galvanizing plant by Daewoo, establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPS) in Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom states.
Others are; commissioning of a 300 MMSCFD gas gathering and injection facility in Kwale, Delta State in partnership with NedoGas and commissioning of a 180-metric-tonne LPG filling plant in Kaduna, and a 100-metric-tonne LPG storage and bottling plant in Katsina State in partnership with Butane Energy
On Human Capital Development (HCD) Initiatives, he said NCDMB has initiated cadetship training for 63 cadets on foreign-going vessels while it has also partnered Shell and PETAN to launch an internship Program, which trained 49 graduate engineers, geologists, and geoscientists.
It also recently commenced the NLNG Train 7 Project Nigerian Content Human Capital Development (NC-HCD) Basic Training for 331 Nigerians
“At the Federal University of Owerri (FUTO) in Imo State, we completed and commissioned an Engineering Design Studio and Information Hub in collaboration with NLNG. Similarly, we completed and commissioned an E-Library at the Niger Delta University in Amassoma, Bayelsa State, in partnership with SPDC and its JV partners,’’.