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Adewale Sanyaolu
A new local content law for the power, rail, construction and Information Communication Technology sectors is underway, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, has announced.
Wabote made the disclosure at the Nigerian Content Stakeholders Workshop organised by the NCDMB for staff of the Ministry of Justice in Abuja recently,
He sought the endorsement of the Ministry for the extension of the Local Content Act to other critical sectors through the amendment of the NOGICD Act to enable NCDMB superintend over those sectors.
He advised against plans to enact a new law that would regulate local content in the science and technology sector and establish an independent agency to supervise it.
According to him, “once you establish another agency, there will be overlap of functions, because science and technology activities overlap to the oil and gas industry, that way the atmosphere will become uncertain and scary to investors.”
“The Ministry of Justice will play an active role in this and will need to tell those who have such plans that it is better to have Local Content under one umbrella. There will be a lot of implications if there are separate laws on Local Content,” he warned.
Speaking on the workshop, Wambote said NCDMB and the Ministry are working to deepen existing collaboration to ensure effective implementation of Nigerian Content initiatives, adding that the collaboration between the two organisations has yielded excellent results.
According to him, some of the results achieved included the Ministry’s approval of fait for the prosecution of persistent defaulters of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and the support for the establishment of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to enable the Board’s partnerships and commercial interventions.
He listed other benefits of the cooperation to include the Ministry’s review of the Draft Nigerian Content Ministerial Regulations and the Board’s sponsorship of capacity building workshops for judicial officers.
The Executive Secretary stated that the Board would not succeed in the implementation of its mandate if the Ministry were not aligned with it. “If we don’t work with the Ministry to understand what we do, it will be difficult for them to support us,” he said.
He noted that the Board had organised similar workshops with the Nigerian Customs, Justices of the Supreme, Appeal and High Courts, with the intent of improving their understanding of the Nigerian Content Act, so as to get their cooperation.
