By John Ikani
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Engr. Simbi Wabote has assured women that they will get special consideration in the allocation of plots at the Board’s nearly-completed industrial parks in Bayelsa and Cross Rivers states.
Engr. Wabote gave the assurance on Tuesday while delivering his keynote address at the Nigerian Women In Oil and Gas Conference 2022 organised by the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF) Diversity Sectoral Working Group (DSWG) in the Convention Centre, Eko Hotel, Lagos.
According to him: “It is our belief that nurturing the career and business of women in our oil and gas industry is one of the ways we can further enhance the participation of Nigerians in the oil and gas industry.”
“Our oil and gas industrial park in Bayelsa and Cross Rivers State are getting ready for completion and will commence operations next year. The industrial parks have been developed as a low-cost manufacturing hub for equipment component part, spare parts, chemicals, consumables and other products.
“Lookout for adverts in newspapers inviting participants, applicants for allocation of plots to set up manufacturing outfits. Women owned businesses with workable proposals are hereby encouraged to apply as you will be given special consideration as part of our commitment to empowering women in the oil and gas industry gas sector,” he said.
Speaking further, the local content chieftain disclosed that the Board has been deliberate in its infusion of females in human capacity development programs like STEM Education, sea-time traning & Marine cadets, ICT labs, vocational skill acquisition, centres of excellence in universities, research and development, technology incubation centres, project management trainings and certification among other interventions programs.
On the unavailability of funding which Engr. Wabote described as one of the key challenges that hinder women participation in the oil and gas industry, he said the Board has partnered with NEXIM Bank to establish a $40 million women in Energy fund.
“This is in addition to the $300 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund which also provides a long term single digit interest rate,” he disclosed.
He also appreciated the ministry of Petroleum Resources for recognising NCDMB’s efforts in supporting women capacity building in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry via the award given the Board as the best gender support agency in the energy space.
“We received the award at the 5th Nigerian International Energy Summit earlier this year in Abuja. Once again, we promise to keep the flag flying in our focus to empower women in the oil and gas industry. To all the females in the room, we promise to continuously leverage on your numbers to start a movement in the oil and gas industry. We cannot afford to leave behind half of our population.
“We will definitely leverage on your advocacies traits to influence policy direction, leverage on your intellect to deepen Nigerian Content and leverage on your intuition to make the right judgement call when it matters most. Our female staff will continue to work in a safe and secure environment where we break down all biases.
“The ongoing construction of creche to make sure that the kids are taken care of within our premises. We also commit to the accelerated promotion of women to occupy enviable positions within the Board.”
Present at the conference were the Honorable Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Chairman of The Board of Directors of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, Chairperson of the NCCF Diversity SWG, Alero Onosode among others.
