The Nigerian oil and gas industry content regulator, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), says it is set to commence the prosecution of those who flout the provisions of the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
The Executive Secretary of the agency, Simbi Wabote, told journalists in Abuja on Monday the NCDMB has already secured a fiat from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to commence the prosecution process.
Mr Wabote the agency has also held special Nigerian content workshops for senior officials of the federal ministry of justice, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Central Bank of Nigeria, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, and members of the local content committees of the 8th National Assembly.
The NOGICD Act became operational on April 22, 2010. It is to provide the legal framework to regulate the integration of the oil and gas producing communities into the mainstream of the oil and gas value chain by fostering institutional collaborations.
Also, the law was established to help maximise the participation of Nigerians in the oil and gas activities and also to link oil and gas sectors to other sectors of the economy.
It is equally to attract investments to the Nigeria oil and gas sector (service providers, equipment suppliers. etc).
In line with Sections 67 & 70 of the Act, which mandates the NCDMB to enlighten the public on Nigerian content activities, Mr Wambote said since his assumption of office on November 1, 2016, ”the board developed and implemented policies towards meeting the targets set in the Act.”
He said one of the first frameworks the board considered was the deployment of resources to pursue the development of the Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap anchored on five pillars.
They include Technical Capability Development, Compliance and Enforcement, Enabling Business Environment, Organisation Capability and Sectorial and Regional Market Linkage.
He said the roadmap has four enablers, namely funding, regulatory environment, collaboration and stakeholders engagement and research and development.
According to him, the roadmap documents consists of short, medium, and long-term targets to increase Nigerian Content performance from 28 per cent to 70 per cent by 2027.
The key rewards from the implementation of the 10-year roadmap, he said, include the creation of 300,000 jobs from industry activities and the retention of $14 billion in-country out of the $20 billion annual industry spend.
Since he assumed office, he said, the NCDMB has deployed and driven several initiatives towards achieving key milestones to support the attainment of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the present administration.
‘Going after flouters’
He said the decision to commence the prosecution of flouters of the Act is to eliminate all stumbling blocks to the realisation of set targets.
‘We are partnering with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and other bodies to attach the trainees to established companies, to enable them to perfect their crafts, learn the business side of their trades and undergo mentoring.
“Very soon we will launch the training of 1,000 youth in Kano on phone hardware repairs, software installation and entrepreneurship development to develop a pool of local talents for assembly of GSM phones and development of software applications that are currently largely import-dependent,” he said.
He said over the past two years, NCDMB established collaborative relationships with the agencies like the Nigeria Customs Service, the anti-graft commissions, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria Immigration Service, Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority and others.
On research and statistics, he said the agency would soon launch its 10-year R&D roadmap following the inauguration of the Research and Development Council in 2018 and the signing off of the research and statistics framework.
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