NCDMB challenges oil contractors with 278 job schedules

By Sopuruchi Onwuka

Businesses and sundry entrepreneurs in the country have unique opportunity to lay out rewarding investments in the numerous programs driven by government in the petroleum industry.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Simbi Wabote, declared at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) that players have roles in the drive to raise the industry’s contribution to national productivity.

He said the agency which promotes localization of petroleum industry jobs and retention of the industry’s patronage in the domestic economy plans significant 278 schedules of activities that are available and imminent in the oil and gas industry.

Each schedule of activities, he said, holds a bundle of contract opportunities that would boost productivity, create jobs, reduce poverty and deliver significant value in the domestic economy.

He explained that the available and emerging Nigerian Content opportunities are not limited to the petroleum industry.

Wabote made it clear that volumes of services needed in the oil and gas operations equally present huge opportunities for related or linked industries.

From financing and insurance through maritime services, logistics, manufacturing and construction, he noted, the existing schedules of activities in ongoing and envisaged projects offer endless contracting opportunities.

He urged player offering support services from other sectors to explore the immense opportunities in the full industry chain.

Engr Wabote who presented the opening remarks at the event pointed out that full exploitation of business opportunities in the petroleum industry could increase the sector’s contribution to national GDP by over 100 percent to the target double digit base level.

He dismissed the current level of petroleum industry’s 5.67 per contribution to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) as unacceptable.

The role of the petroleum industry in stimulating vibrant activities across it’s vast linkage sectors, he noted, was dwindling due to deferred investments and unexploited opportunities.

In comparing the Nigerian economy to the Norwegian model where petroleum industry accounts for over 20 percent of the European country’s $367 billion  GDP, Engr Wabote declared that the oil and gas industry in Nigeria was being transformed for greater impact in the local economy.

 Throughout deliberate laws, policies, programmes and regulations, he pointed out, the operating environment has been transformed to facilitate businesses.

He listed enabling factors for businesses in the petroleum industry to include human capital, funding and infrastructure.

Wabote told the teeming audience take advantage of business incentives offered in flare gas commercialization, autogas and gas expansion programmes; massive infrastructure development; industrial parks and other projects mapped out for execution by the NCDMB.

Apart from participating in the projects and establishing businesses in the parks, he pointed, investors could position for maintenance and provision of other numerous services at the facilities.

He made it clear that the enhanced activity level in the petroleum and linked sectors would find huge market advantage in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).

“ACFTA creates largest single market in the world,” he declared, adding that the NCDMB has trained over one million women and youths for skilled services in the industry.

On funding, Engr Wabote listed a number of cheap funding sources available for industry contractors.

Apart from the $300 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF), the $50 million Research and Development (R$D) Fund and the $40 million sectoral diversity fund for women; Engr Wabote pointed at a number of development banks, idle funds and other industry specific funds available for contractors offering services in the petroleum industry.

He said the NCDMB was working out collaboration with sister agencies in the country to tap into dormant funds.

On projects and facilities developed by the NCDMB, Engr Wabote pointed that the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks (NOGAPS), the Oloibiri Museum,  the Brass shipyard, and refining investments provide maintenance opportunities for competent companies willing to provide services.

Beyond the oil and gas industry, Engr Wabote also pointed out that the infrastructure focus of Buhari government provided additional opportunity for maintenance services for players across sectors of the economy.

He pledged that the NCDMB would support all projects to be identified in 2023 NOGOF.