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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The federal government has continued to relish the gains of passing the 2010 Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, saying the move halted an estimated loss of over $380 billion (USD) to capital flight and two million jobs within the 50-year period the Act was not in existence.
Also lost was the opportunity cost for in-country capacity development and value addition in the oil and gas industry.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Wabote, made the disclosure at the 5th Annual Valuechain Lecture and Awards, convened by MBdotCOM Media Associates, held in Abuja recently.
According to him, the situation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry before the enactment of the NOGICD Act 2010 was appalling, adding that the cumulative Nigerian content level before the creation of the NCDMB was less than five percent.
He noted that through pragmatic application of certain provisions of the NOGICD Act 2010, the NCDMB has recorded various landmark achievements in the oil and gas industry within 12 years of its existence and grown Nigerian content level from 5% to 42% as at December 2021.
Wabote pointed out that the landmark achievements under the Nigerian Content Law leave visible footprints in the production records of indigenous operators, in-country capital retention, development of infrastructure, vendor development and supply chain efficiency, engineering and technical services, fabrication capability, human capacity development, job creation, asset ownership, procurements, manufacturing of critical oil and gas tools and components, and most importantly a paradigm shift in project execution philosophy of operating and service companies in Nigeria.
He explained joy that President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to reinforce local content practice in the industry through his total support for the Board’s programmes as well as the issuing of Executive Orders (EO: 3 & 5) that aim to promote local content in the public procurements and projects.
“There are currently before the National Assembly, three different bills seeking to extend local content law to other sectors. The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act (Amendment) Bill 2020 (58.417); the Nigerian Local Content Development and Enforcement Bill 2020 (58.419); and the Nigerian Oil and gas Industry Content Act 2010 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2020 (58.420).
“Local content laws exist across the different sectors with various levels of successes in implementation but monitoring of compliance and enforcement are major challenges for regulators.
“One of the factors increasing cost is the local content provision, a situation where an important project has to be done but the local content provision is making it economically unviable”, he added.
The event was attended by the Professorial Chair, Oil & Gas Economics Management, Prof. Wumi Illedare; President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mansur Ahmed, and representative of the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
A communique issued at the event recommended the adoption of a bespoke approach to the call to extend the Nigerian Content Law to other sectors; an approach that would consider the peculiarities of the various sectors intended to be covered.
It was also also recommended that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with responsibilities to monitor or implement local content have a lot to learn from what the NCDMB has done.
The National Assembly was also tasked to consider a sector by sector local content law approach as lumping the sectors together will not promote efficiency and effectiveness.
It was agreed that local content implementing agencies should not see themselves as pro-government or enforcing government law but to see themselves as protecting the investors, among other matters adopted.
