Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has stressed the importance of its Community Content Guideline (CCG), as it urged communities hosting oil and gas assets to take advantage of the structure.
The NCDMB Community Content Guideline is a framework designed by the Board, pursuant to provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, stipulating meaningful integration of host communities into the oil and gas industry value chain.
It sets out what operating companies are required to do in regard to jobs, training, contract opportunities, engagement of local vendors for services, capacity building, and provision of critical facilities to boost development in host communities.
To further enhance community understanding of the guidelines the Board in conjunction with Boss Engineering Nigeria Limited, an indigenous oil service company, recently held the latest of the Board’s Sensitization and Enlightenment Workshop on CCG in Bayelsa State.
In a welcome address, the General Manager, Zonal Coordination, of the NCDMB, Mr. Ifeanyi Ukoha, expressed appreciation for the huge turnout of participants for the event, while stating the desire of the Board to have oil- and gas-producing communities sufficiently informed of what the Board and the industry have accepted as Guideline to govern interactions and relations between operators and contractors and their respective hosts.
He highlighted some key areas of the CCG to be focused upon in the workshop, and sought to underscore the significance of the sensitisation and enlightenment exercise by asking participants to indicate who amongst them had registered on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content (NOGIC) Joint Qualification System (JQS). None had registered. Besides, funding schemes of the Board, including community contractor financing, were unknown.
The Zonal Coordination boss urged participants to be attentive and seek clarification in the course of presentations so as to become adequately enlightened and engaged in the numerous opportunities that the Guideline has made possible for host communities.
A keynote address by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, was presented by his Special Adviser on Local Content, Hon Andrew Esau. He commended NCDMB for undertaking to mount such a workshop to raise awareness among the people on how they could actively participate in the oil and gas value chain and thus attain economic empowerment.
The Governor noted that the opportunities for host communities, as set out in the Community Content Guideline, were numerous in terms of employment, training, capacity building, contracts, funding for community contractors, and a host of others. He urged the NCDMB to make such sensitisation exercises regular across oil- and gas-producing communities to enable upcoming entrepreneurs to grasp the intricacies in establishing small businesses and getting properly registered on the NOGIC JQS.
“Bayelsa State Government is very of you and is prepared to collaborate with you” to expand opportunities for development, he declared, noting that it would be necessary to generate statistics for proper planning in capacity building and related programmes of the Board.
In the first presentation of the workshop, which focused on the NOGIC JQS Portal, Mrs. Oluchi Obiatuegwu, of the JQS Department, NCDMB, defined and explained the features of the platform and procedures for registration. Key features include individual management, service company management, operators management, marine vessel categorisation, certificate of registration, Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate, and expatriate quota management. She followed up with registration procedures for individuals and for service companies.
In the second presentation on Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), Mr. Okezie Unagha, who stood in for the General Manager, NCDF, explained that the Fund acts as a catalyst for industrialisation of the economy. He listed the $350 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF), managed by the Bank of Industry, which he described as a pool of funds for on-lending to industry stakeholders, sourced from the NCDF. He said the Fund was for asset acquisition, contract financing and loan refinancing, among other things.
There was also the Community Contractor Finance, managed by the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), to provide funding for local contractors, with a single obligor threshold of N100 million at eight per cent interest rate. In addition, there is the Women in Oil and Gas Intervention Fund managed by the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM-Bank), which covers working capital and invoice discounting facility (IDF), among other things.
The third presentation was on Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate (NCEC), by Mr. Simeon Eseikpe. He pointed out that every prospective stakeholder has to obtain the NCEC before such a company could be deemed eligible for registration by the NCDMB for industry business. According to him, “the NCEC is conceived by the Board as a strategy towards achieving the minimum targets set out in the schedule to the NOGICD Act for equipment….”
Questions from the participants centred on how new entrants into the oil and gas sector could navigate the myriad requirements and the need for the Board to get the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPS) at Emeyal in Ogbia Local Government Area completed and commissioned for commencement of operations. Answers and assurances were provided by the resource persons.
In closing remarks, the Manager, Bayelsa Zonal Office, Mr. Dallas Asangolo, thanked the participants for the interactive session and assured them that the Board was willing and able to facilitate their active participation in industry operations.