BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
The newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe has assumed duty, with a call on the staff to be productive and sustain the board’s legacies.
President Bola Tinubu had on Thursday, December 7 2023, appointed Ogbe as the Executive Secretary of NCDMB alongside eight senior management of the board.
He replaced the immediate past Executive Secretary, Engr Simbi Wabote who served the board for seven and half years.
At his first official meeting with the directors and senior management of the board on Thursday in Abuja, Ogbe received a high-level briefing on the ongoing projects and initiatives by the board.
Ogbe lauded the achievements recorded by the agency, especially the human capacity development programme which produced Nigerians that currently provide high-tech services in other African oil-producing countries.
On the Nigerian Content 10-year strategic roadmap which had recorded 54 percent achievement in the sixth year of implementation, Ogbe stated that expert consultants would be invited to certify the performance for more authenticity.
He harped on the need for NCDMB to sensitise key stakeholders in cities across Nigeria on the opportunities created by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
Ogbe enjoined the board to work closely with its contractors in order to speed up the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks project and achieve its objectives for the economy.
Briefly
The new Executive Secretary hails from Warri South in Delta State. He is a vastly experienced oil and gas engineer, with Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering and Construction Management.
He has over 37 years experience in oil and gas, and local content operations in Nigeria, notably onshore and offshore such as liquefied natural gas, water drilling, treatment and storage facilities; civil, building and dredging engineering.
His experiences cut across Nigeria, Busan, South Korea and USA, where he worked in the conceptions, engineering designs, project and construction management to commissioning phases of projects.
Ogbe held top positions in Nigeria and overseas while working with Chevron Corporation before he voluntarily retired in June 2014, to start his private business.
While at Chevron Nigeria Limited, he served as Construction Services Group Superintendent (Escravos-Warri) and was responsible for in-house construction services requirements to support the company’s operations.
He equally served as Offshore Projects Manager, where he was responsible for all the engineering designs, planning and execution of maintenance works and installation of new facilities to support productions in Chevron Nigeria Limited offshore locations.
Other assignments he held in Chevron included Construction Manager (Lagos & Escravos-Warri) and Escravos Gas Project (EGP-3B), where he was responsible for the fabrication and installation of various sizes of pipelines/flowlines in offshore and onshore locations in the Niger Delta.
In his early years, Ogbe served as Construction Superintendent responsible for engineering designs and construction requirements. He also worked as Cost Control Engineer in charge of all Facility Engineering Division Projects’ cost controls, budgeting and cashcalls.
Ogbe is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Council of Registered Engineers, and American Institute of Civil Engineers.
He is happily married with children.
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