By John Ikani
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote has revealed that the Board achieved 54% Nigerian Content in the Oil & Gas industry between 2016-2022.
Engr. Wabote made this known on Tuesday while delivering his keynote address at the opening of the 11th Practical Nigerian Content Conference holding at Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State from the 5th – 8th December 2022.
According to him: “The push for Nigerian Content (NC) as envisaged in our 10-year Strategic Roadmap has continued to yield results in the last 5 years. Out of the 96 initiatives under the strategic roadmap, we have completed 77.
“It is my pleasure to announce that the 2022 Nigerian Content level in the Nigerian oil and gas industry is 54% based on our monitoring and evaluation of industry activities which bring the average in the last 5 years to 44% Nigerian Content level.
“Once again, this performance is well above the minimum target of 42% NC set for 2022 by the Board’s Project Management Office (PMO) just like we outperformed the 38% NC target set for 2021 by achieving 42% Nigerian Content.
“The Roadmap Checkpoint Review carried out in 2020 had highlighted the need to deliver a minimum of 11% year-on-year growth rate if we are to achieve the 70% NC target by 2027.
“Apart from the Year 2020, we have performed above target with year 2022 performance largely driven by the contracts awarded under the Train-7 project.
“The top-3 performers of in-country spend in 2022 are Fabrication and Construction at 99% NC, Manpower at 81% NC, and Project Management at 80% NC while the bottom-3 performers are Procurement at 34% NC, Engineering at 46% NC, and Services at 50% NC.
Reeling out more figures, the NCDMB boss highlighted the Board’s performance against promises in 2022 under the five (5) pillars of its strategic roadmap.
According to him: “The technical operations data shows the capture of the following into the NOGIC-JQS in 2022: twelve (12) new operators to bring the total to 97; 1,303 service companies to bring the total to 9,537, and 22,512 individual registrations to bring the total to more than 271,000.
“A total of 889 EQs were approved in 2022 while 179 EQs were rejected. The expatriate quota approval is trending down in the last five years.
“Furthermore, a total of 178 NC Plans and 197 NC Compliance Certificates were approved in 2022. We have ensured increase in the involvement of Nigerian businesses in industry contracting process resulting in an increase of the percentage of the number of contract awards to Nigerian businesses from 79% in 2021 to 82% in 2022.”
Speaking further, the Local Content chieftain noted that the Board is seeing increase in investors’ confidence in the industry resulting in new investments in structural steel fabrication and optical fiber cable manufacturing facility.
He added that there is deliberate inclusion of women owned companies and Project 100 companies in bidding for contracts to further diversify and deepen the supply chain development in the country.
The Executive Secretary assured that as the Board moves into its medium to long term initiatives under the roadmap, focus will placed on few but very demanding deliverables including: “Launch e-marketplace for industry procurements; Facilitate delivery of dry dock facility on the back of E&P project; Deliver additional (4) NOGAPS Industrial Parks “Phase-2; Deliver in-country build of category-2 & category-3 Vessels; Expand Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) to cover identified linkage sectors.”
It is worthwhile to note that the Practical Nigerian Content Forum is a flagship event of the Board which attracts major stakeholders in the oil and gas industry from across Nigeria.
The event serves as an opportunity to showcase the practical investment opportunities and achievements by NCDMB in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its linkage sectors.
The event which hosts senior government officials, heads of International and Indigenous Oil Companies, also features exhibitions of industry products and services.
