By John Ikani
The outstanding performance of Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote as the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is set to be recognised and celebrated again, as he has been nominated for the “Distinguished Capacity Development Award” at the forthcoming Nigeria Excellence in Public Service Awards, to be conferred by President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR).
A letter signed by Dr. Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri, Permanent Secretary, General Services Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, revealed that the award will be bestowed on Engr. Wabote and other deserving Nigerians in different categories at a ceremony scheduled for the State House Conference Centre, Abuja on October 21.
According to feelers from the Presidency, the Executive Secretary is getting the award for the outstanding strides he accomplished, particularly in human and infrastructural capacity development since he was appointed as the helmsman of NCDMB in September 2016 and got reappointed in 2020.
The accomplishments are in furtherance of the mandate of NCDMB, as enshrined in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act. They include providing capacity-building opportunities for over 13,000 Nigerians in various skill areas resulting in over 12 million training manhours and championing the construction and commissioning of NCDMB 17-Storey Headquarters with a 1000-seater conference auditorium and multi-level car park in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The edifice was constructed in five years by an indigenous contractor and provided opportunities for artisanal skills development and capacity-building for Nigerians as well as creating over 250 employment positions for the host community.
Other notable achievements recorded by Wabote in the past six years include the successful partnership with Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited to develop and commission a 5000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State, and investments in modular refineries like Azikel Group12,000 bpd hydro-skimming modular refinery in Polaku, Bayelsa State; Atlantic International Refinery’s 2000 barrels plant in Brass, Bayelsa State, and Duport Midstream’s 2,500bpd modular refinery in Edo State.
These investments created over 3000 jobs in the refining value chain and ensured value addition to Nigeria’s crude oil, grew our domestic refining capacity and curbed pipeline vandalism.
The successes in capacity development also extend to the construction of two oil and gas parks in Bayelsa and Cross River States – designed to spur the manufacturing of critical oil and gas equipment, tools and spare parts in Nigeria. The parks are due for completion in Q1 2023 and would create over 2000 jobs each.
He also championed the construction and donation of an ultra-modern vocational school to the University of Ibadan and renovated and equipped the Government Technical College Abak, Akwa Ibom and Technical College Amoli, Awgu Local Government Area, Enugu State.
The Executive Secretary also championed the donation of over 35 ICT centres and science labouratories to secondary schools across the country to enhance the quality of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
Under his leadership, NCDMB grew the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund to a US$500m Fund and disbursed it effectively as credit to Nigerian oil and gas service companies and community contractors, with single-digit interest.
This enabled local oil and gas service companies to build human and technical capacities to provide hi-tech services in the oil and gas industry, compete effectively with their international counterpartand create thousands of jobs for Nigerians.
Other standout achievements include the partnership with investors to catalyse critical projects in the gas value-chain, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of the year 2021 – 2030 as Nigeria’s Decade of Gas.
Some of the NCDMB’s third party investments under his leadership include LPG Composite cylinders manufacturing facilities; Gas Processing Plants; Gas Gathering hub and LPG Storage and Loading Terminal Facilities.
The Board is also partnering with investors to establish gas processing plants, Inland LPG terminal and Smart Gas/Smoke Detector Alarm devices and a Base Oil Production plant.
Prior to this award, the Executive Secretary has been conferred with several international and national awards, including a global award conferred by the organizers of African Oil Week (AOW) in November 2018 for his outstanding contributions to sustainable local content development in Nigeria and across the African oil and gas industry.
He was also honoured in August 2019 as the Transformational Business Leader in Public Sector by the Business Leadership Awards, organised by the BusinessDay Newspapers and bagged the Local Content Development Achievement Award from the Oil and Gas Trainers Association (OGTAN) in April 2018 in recognition of the remarkable achievements he led the Board to record in less than two years of his assumption of duty.
He was equally recognised as the Regulator of the Year at the 2021 Vanguard Personality of the Year Award and received the African Local Content Icon Award by the 2021 African Business Leadership Awards (ABLA) organized by the African Leadership Magazine.
