The executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development Management Board [NCDMB], Mr. Simbi Wabote last weekend, received a delegation of the ministry of commerce and mines, Republic of Guinea, led by the executive director of BSTP, Saifouly Balde at the board’s liaison office in Abuja.
In a speech, Mr. Balde said he and his team were in Nigeria to study first-hand the rudiments of the local content development and management. He said his country, and indeed many other countries in Africa are fascinated by the progress made by the NCDMB.
“We are here to learn first-hand from the NCDMB how the local content implementation is working in Nigeria, and what measures we can put in place back home to achieve our mandate”, he said
The ES in his address to the delegation, outlined the challenges Nigeria faced before the enactment of the Act in 2010.
According to him, the NCDMB has been bullish and focused in its core mandate. “That is why we have achieved a 54% Nigerian Content Participation in the oil and gas industry,” Simbi said
The NCDMB boss thanked the Republic of Guinea for the visit and assured them of the board’s willingness to help them achieve the aim of their visit.
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Wabote recalled that other African nations like Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda and others have benefitted from Nigeria’s guidance on local content and the Board would continue to provide similar support to any interested Africannation that requests for its assistance.
He added that the Board’s objective is to extend local content practice across the content, in line with the Sectorial and Regional Market Linkage Pillar of the Nigerian Content 10-year strategic roadmap.
Speaking further, the Executive Secretary advised the Guinean delegation to remain committed to the implementation of local content policy, describing it as a long journey, which would require strong political will from their leaders and the development of tools, processes, communications strategies, and stakeholder engagements.
According to him, Nigeria introduced the policy when the local content level was less than five percent in 2010 and the local supply chain lacked the capacity to execute critical projects in the country, which resulted in most of the opportunities going to expatriate personnel and companies.
He recalled that Nigerian introduced the policy when the local content level was less than five percent in 2010 and the local supply chain lacked the capacity to execute critical projects in the country, which resulted in most of the opportunities going to expatriate personnel and companies.
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He informed that the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and the focussed implementation in the past 12 years have resulted in the growth of in-country capacity to 54 percent at the end of 2022.He informed that the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and the focussed implementation in the past 12 years have resulted in the growth of in-country capacity to 54 percent at the end of 2022.
He also invited them to visit and tour the board’s Local Content headquarters in Yenegoa, Bayelsa state