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By Adewale Sanyaolu
A former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr.Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday, set a N1 billion Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund) target for the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
Kachikwu stated this at the NCDMB Business Mentorship Series webinar series hosted by NCDMB, yesterday.
The former Minister expressed concern over the inability of NCDMB to grow the fund beyond the N200 million marks, a figure that has remained at same levels six years after he left office.
“I expected that by now the NCDMB should have grown the fund to up to $1 billion. I left the figure at $200 million when I left office about six years ago. So I encourage NCDMB to grow this figure beyond current levels of $200 million,’’.
My NCDMB experiment of $200 million is a way of how to put back. We must not just consume everything that comes to the table. That initiative was successful because the Federal Government approved it.
The Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund is a Nigerian government initiative to provide low-cost financing to indigenous oil and gas service companies to boost local content, build capacity, and support economic growth.
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Managed by the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) on behalf of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the fund was established from the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), which collects a one per cent deduction from upstream oil and gas contracts.
The NCI Fund offers various loan products, including manufacturing, asset acquisition, contract finance, loan refinancing, and community contractor financing.Oh his role in advancing NCDMB reforms, Kachikwu said one of the key pillars of his service in the oil and gas industry has been advancing the vision of NCDMB.
“I believed strongly that our industry must create room for Nigerians to not only participate but also thrive. For too long, foreign companies dominated every segment of the sector, while our people remained bystanders.
Under my leadership, Nigerian participation in oil and gas contracts grew from less than five per cent pre-2010 to over 30 per cent by 2020.
We established the $200 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund to give indigenous contractors and service providers access to financing. I made it a priority to support training, and during my tenure, more than more than 7,000 Nigerians were trained in marine engineering, welding, fabrication, subsea technology, and project management.
I pushed for in-country fabrication of FPSO modules and promoted modular refinery initiatives. For me, local content was never just a slogan—it was a tool for industrialisation, job creation, and knowledge 7,000 Nigerians were trained in marine engineering, welding, fabrication, subsea technology, and project management,”.
