NCDMB Beats 10-year Strategic Roadmap, Implements 83% Target

BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
With four years to the end of the Strategic Roadmap, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has implemented 83 out of 96 percent target for local content.
The 10-year roadmap was launched at the end of 2017, with the aim of increasing Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry to 70 percent by the year 2027.
Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote stated this on Thursday at the 12th Practical Nigerian Content Forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, with the theme: “Deepening Nigerian Content Amidst Divestments, Domestication and Decarbonisation.”
He noted that the roadmap is guided by five pillars and four enablers to drive the focus areas and are supported with short, medium and long-term initiatives.
Presenting the scorecard of NCDMB at the forum attended by over 700 oil and gas stakeholders, he explained that the board would concentrate more in attaining the remaining targets that needed heavy task.
He said that Nigerian content level in 2023 stood at 54 per cent just like in 2022, based on the board’s monitoring and evaluation of industry activities.
Wabote explained that the performance of local content was above the minimum target of 47 percent set by the board’s Project Management Office (PMO) for 2023.
The top three performers of in-country expenditure are shipping, surveying and positioning services, and inspection, testing and certification, with each at 100 percent Nigerian content level.
Also, the bottom three performers, modification and maintenance stood at 26 percent; health, safety and environment rose to 31 percent while materials and procurement reached 32 percent local content level.
He lamented that the 54 percent Nigerian content achievement raised questions on whether the board had reached a point of stagnation or inflection, leading to a decline in the oil and gas industry.
At his last PNC keynote address as the executive secretary of NCDMB, Wabote pleaded with the stakeholders to work consistently and prevent the industry from rolling back to the dark days of implementing Nigerian content as a token of consolation.
He cautioned that the nexus between high Nigerian content levels and the relative peace in the industry must not be lost, adding that lack of support at all levels opened the door for the practice to take the back seat.
Presenting his scorecard in the last seven and half years in the saddle, the executive secretary noted that individual registrations surged from 140,000 in 2018 to almost 400,000 in 2023.
Citing data from the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System (NOGIC-JQS), he said that registered indigenous industry operators increased from 53 in 2018 to 114 in 2023, while indigenous service companies rose from 8,000 to 11,000 within the same period.
Wabote pointed out that in-country fabrication capacity increased from 60,000 tons per year to 250,000 tons within the period under review.
He disclosed that eight industrial parks developed by the board to support manufacturing and assembly of equipment and input materials are at various stages of execution.
Wabote stated that the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPS) at Emeyal-1 in Bayelsa State, and a similar Park at Odukpani in Cross River State will be commissioned in the first half of 2024.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri commended NCDMB for its outstanding performance in local content implementation and for the PNC forum.
He assured that the Federal Government is committed to promoting cleaner and more sustainable practices within the energy sector, even as the country continues with hydrocarbon extraction.
Lokpobiri, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda said that Nigeria aligned with the global push for environmental stewardship and would explore all means to make production processes conform to cleaner technologies.
He enjoined the stakeholders to embrace the challenges caused by divestment and promote domestication by pursuing the path of decarbonisation.
The Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alabo Gideon Ekeuwei lauded NCDMB for the extraordinary successes.
He charged the participants to explore avenues for collaboration, joint ventures, and partnerships that would help Nigeria to fully harness local content potentialities.