The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has dismissed insinuations to the effect that three Executive Orders issued by President Bola Tinubu on the oil and gas industry in March 2024, have diminished the relevance of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
This was one of the key messages from the local content master class and panel discussion at the African Energy Week, which started in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday.
Discussions highlighted Nigeria’s local content milestones and processes, provided local lessons for other African oil and gas producing countries, clarified misconceptions, as well as positioned Nigeria’s oil and gas industry for investment.
The Director of Capacity Building, Abayomi Bamidele, observed that some oil and gas stakeholders grossly misinterpreted the Executive Orders to mean that the NOGICD Act had been relegated or sidestepped, and they no longer need to comply with the provisions of the law.
“The special adviser to the president on energy had to clarify that the presidential directives did not set aside local content.
“They only mandated that existing capacities must be patronized and middlemen must be excluded from the contracting process,” he explained.
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The three Executive Orders are the presidential directive on local content compliance, the presidential directive on reduction of petroleum sector contracting cost and timelines, and the presidential directive on oil and gas companies (tax incentives, exemption, remission, etc).
Bamidele confirmed that the NCDMB had streamlined its contracting strategies to align with the presidential directives, had reduced its touch points in the contract approval process from nine to five, and was catalysing new oil and gas projects.
He announced that qualified international service companies can now be awarded the Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate (NCEC) to facilitate their direct participation in deepwater operations in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, as provided in the NOGICD Act.
“This policy will attract investments into the sector, and is consistent with the presidential directives,” he explained.
On the board’s strategy for capacity development for new oil and gas projects, he said plans are afoot to conduct training in skill areas that are in high demand in the sector.
He underlined the need to always streamline capacity-building initiatives with requirements and changing dynamics in the industry.
Bamidele added that the board is also committed to developing critical infrastructure such as the Brass Island shipyard with support from the NLNG, as well as completing and operationalizing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks at Odukpani, Cross River State, and Emeyal-1 in Bayelsa State.
He counselled sister African countries that local content and capacity building strategies must be country-specific and that policymakers must understand the mindset and skill sets of their nationals.
He further advised that local content policies and capacity building models must be relevant and applicable to the host country’s technological, educational, and manpower capacities.
