NOGICD Act: Over 50,000 direct jobs have been created — NCDMB declares

By Uthman Salami

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engineer Simbi Wabote, has revealed that over 50,000 direct jobs have been created since the implementation of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD).

The Executive Secretary of (NCDMB), disclosed this in Lagos, in a keynote address at a colloquium organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Business Law in collaboration with the NCDMB.

According to him, “Since inception in 2010, the implementation of the Act has resulted in 35 per cent of in-country value retention compared to the less than five value retention before the NOGICD Act.”

He added that “Before the Act, we had annual spend of $20 billion with little or nothing retained in-country. Today, I can confidently say that we spend over $6 billion in-country annually. We have two world-class pipe mills and five impressive pipe coating yards.”

Wabote further noted that about 40 per cent of marine vessels engaged in the Nigerian oil and gas industry are owned by Nigerians and that Nigeria currently own four active dry-docking facilities in Port Harcourt, Onne, and Lagos.

The Secretary disclosed that the Act and its enforcement has also led to the manufacturing of all cables required in the oil and gas sector in-country.

In his words, “Our indigenous operators are responsible for 15 per cent of our oil production and 60 per cent of our domestic gas supply In fabrication, today Nigeria can handle fabrication of more than 120,000 tonnes per year.”

The Secretary noted that the local content drive has provided vagaries of opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector revealing that some of them relate to the legal profession by providing an opportunity to invest in any area in the oil and gas value-chain as well as opportunity to enter into a partnership with the board in any critical, high-value area of the oil and gas industry.