Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt 

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has reaffirmed its commitment to developing and promoting local content in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

This was as the management of the NCDMB has clarified that the agency is not an interventionist agency for the Niger Delta region, but a pan-Nigerian.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, Dr. Ezeobi Obinna, made the clarification yesterday, in Port Harcourt, during the agency’s engagement with media stakeholders and youth groups across the Niger Delta.

The agency said it has so far lived up to her core mandate of developing local capacities and capabilities without comprising standards as provided in the Act.

Dr. Ezeobi emphasised that the agency’s primary mandate is to build capacity in the oil and gas industry and related sectors, adding that it is also saddled with the responsibility of enforcing Nigerian content provision compliance.

Ezeobi who spoke against the backdrop of youths’ clamour for the agency’s intervention in the provision of roads and other basic infrastructure within the Niger Delta region, said such demands were outside its mandate.

He said, “The NCDMB is a federal agency set up to build local capacities and to enforce compliance of Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry and related sectors. 

“NCDMB is not an agency set out specifically for the Niger Delta. No, the NCDMB was not set out as an interventionist agency. When you’re talking about intervention you are saying an agency set out to focus only on Niger Delta. That is not our mandate. 

“NCDMB is a federal government agency that is set out to do what? To build capacities in the oil and gas industry and to enforce compliance. 

“That is, to get Nigerians to play roles in the oil and gas industry, to get Nigerians to participate in manpower, in equipment, in different things, to have everybody play a role and to see how the oil and gas industry impact will benefit other sectors, to create jobs, to have the economy grow,” he explained.

Also speaking, Director of Corporate Services NCDMB, Dr. Abdulmalik Halilu, disclosed that over 100 indigenous companies with EPC (Exploration, Production and Construction) capabilities have made giant strides in the country, while about 15,000 Nigerians have been trained in skills such as welding, marine operations, PMT design engineering under the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN).

Halilu explained that NCDMB has pledged continuous support to Nigerian businesses to excel by remaining committed to the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, enacted in 2010.

“Between 2010 when the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act was enacted, paving way for the birth of the Nigerian Content Development and Management Board, NCDMB, ease of doing business in Nigeria, especially in the nation’s oil and gas sector, was redefined.”

On his part, General Manager Monitoring and Evaluation, NCDMB, Silas Ajimijaye, disclosed that the agency apart from efficiently delivering on its mandate, is also providing Corporate Social Responsibility support within the region.

“Apart from delivering on our mandate, we are also doing workshops, doing training, providing support in different ways across the Niger Delta. For some media platforms we have partnership with we provide advertising support, for some we provide CSR support,” Ajimijaye added.

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