By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has disclosed that the Board achieved about 83 per cent of the 96 initiatives under its strategic roadmap, noting that efforts were in top gear to ensure full realization of the blueprint in the near future.
Wabote made this known at the 12th Practical Nigerian Content Forum with the theme, ‘Deepening Nigerian Content Amidst Divestments, Domestication & Decarbonisation,’ in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Tuesday.
He said that the Board earned $500 million, which is equivalent to N401 billion, dividend for partnering to establish Waltersmith Refinery located in Imo State, adding that the NCDMB Management remains totally committed to carrying out ‘some heavy lifting’ in order to achieve the remaining key initiatives, while also calling on all relevant stakeholders to collaborate with the Board to deepen local content in the country.
In his own words “under the roadmap, the technical operations data in NOGIC-JQS shows that the number of registered industry operators moved from 53 in 2018 to 114 in 2023 representing over 100 percent increase. Within the same period, service companies increased from 8,000 to 11,000 while individual registrations increased from 140,000 to almost 400,000.
“Certification of Nigerian Content Plans increased from 178 in 2022 to 255 in 2023, while the approved Nigerian Content (NC) Compliance Certificates dropped from 197 in 2022 to 168 in 2023. With the support of the industry, our sponsors, principals, advocates, staff, contractors, host communities, and even critics, the transformational impact of the delivery of these initiatives has been of resounding success”.
The NCDMB boss expressed hope that the higher certified NC Plans in 2023 would soon translate to approved contracts with NC Compliance Certificates as the industry gets accustomed to the policy directions of the new government.
He noted that the Board signed a fresh Memorandum of Understanding for a new Service Level Agreement SLA-MOU with industry operators and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPC (NNPC Limited), in its efforts to shorten the contracting cycle to a maximum of six months.
Wabote also revealed that 889 expatriate quotas were approved in 2022, while 179 were rejected, noting that the board has worked hard in the last five years to consistently cut back on expatriate quota.
“Regarding our Commercial Ventures portfolio, we partnered with Waltersmith to establish a 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State and this year alone, the refinery has produced and sold over 170million liters or about 3,000 trucks of petroleum products that would have been hitherto imported using our scarce forex.
“Under the Strategic Roadmap initiatives, we made substantial recoveries from the Third-party Forensic Audit of the NCDF Remittances instituted to determine, track and recover outstanding statutory remittances into the Fund,” he stated.
The Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and Waltersmith Refinery, Abdularasaq Isa, on his own part, applauded the Wabote-led management of NCDMB for taking giant steps to reposition the industry, encouraging the Board to review certain aspects of its legislation that may potentially work against the competitiveness of Nigeria’s oil & gas sector in the global marketplace.