By John Ikani
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) recently provided insights into its Expatriate Quota (EQ) Management System and guiding principles as underpinned by provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010.
At its yearly stakeholder engagement on the subject tagged “2023 EQ Sensitization Workshop,” held in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Warri, on 13, 15 and 17 November, respectively, the Board stated that the contents and implementation strategy of the EQ Management System are in line with its “mandate to develop indigenous capacity for efficient delivery of services in the oil and gas industry.”
The Director of Planning Research and Statistics (PRS) of the NCDMB, Alhaji Abdulmalik Halilu, told the industry chiefs at the well-attended events that “the overarching objective of leveraging global expertise, honing indigenous skills as well as attracting and protecting investor interest” governs the implementation of the System.
In other words, development of indigenous capacity is prioritised but without discounting the intrinsic benefits of global expertise or imperatives of efficiency of service delivery and ability to attract and protect foreign investments in the sector.
He explained that the yearly sensitisation workshop is “firmly rooted in our commitment to carry stakeholders along as we diligently pursue the implementation of the Board’s 10-year Strategic plan targeting 70% Nigerian Content by 2027.” Appropriate modules illuminating the subject matter were employed at the event.
In the first module, which centred on Awareness, the PRS Director said the object was to “deepen awareness on provisions of NCDMB EQ guideline covering EQ application procedure and requirements, TWP [Temporary Work Permit] and biometrics data capture.”
In Module 2, which focused on “Automated Business Processes,” he said, “The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System (NOGIC-JQS) portal has been established as the industry’s repository for assessing available capacities and capabilities and consists of multifaced functional modules that allow stakeholders to interface with NCDMB through cyberspace.”
The PRS lead explained that “to date, business process automation has been achieved for NCEC [Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate] EQ, Marine Vessel as part of our commitment to promote transparency, efficiency, and ease of doing business.”
In Module 3, “Data-driven Collaboration,” Alhaji Halilu said NOGIC-JQS data sets would be showcased “with a view to reinforcing the importance of maintaining up-to-date profile accounts by operating companies and service providers” and that data sets included “equipment certificate categories, marine vessels, business registration, individual registration, etc.”
“Complaints Management” was the subject of interest in Module 4. According to the PRS Director, “whistleblower modules exist for logging complaints, while help desk and other CRM [customer relationship management] functionalities exist for enquiries.”
Non-compliance with any provision of the NOGICD Act, he emphasised, attracts consequences, as “The Board has a well-coordinated internal mechanism to withhold approvals such as EQ application on account of non-compliance with NCDF [Nigerian Content Development Fund] remittance and other Nigerian Content regulations.”
Alhaji Halilu assured the industry chiefs that, going forward, the NCDMB would “leverage the NOGIC-JQS to deepen collaboration with stakeholders” through “Deployment of Application Programming Interface (API) for data exchange and information sharing on EQ approvals, marine vessel, rig records, etc. among MDAs.”
A related intervention is that the “Go-live of e-marketplace with NLNG [Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas] as a pilot will further expand the frontiers of business opportunities and deepen transparency in procurement of goods and services in the industry.”
