NCDMB Targets 70% Local Content by 2027

Jonathan Eze

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has announced plans to increase the local content in the oil and gas industry from the current 28 per cent to 70 per cent by 2027.

Wabote who was represented by the Director, Planning Research and Statistics, NCDMB, Patrick Obah, said the key parameters required for sustainable local content include, incentives, capacity gap analysis, research, development and capacity building.

According to him, the policy is still faced with challenges ranging from weak sectoral linkages, weak infrastructural base, policy inconsistency, skill gap and the economic factor.

Wabote spoke in Lagos at the breakfast meeting organised by the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) with the theme: “The Role of Nigeria’s Local Content Policy and its Impact on Sustainable Economic Value Creation”.
At the event, the National president of NACC, Oluwatoyin Akomolafe, who was represented by the Vice President, Mr. Ehi Braimah, expressed concerns over the low level of patronage of local manpower and facilities by Nigerian companies.

He added that the adoption of local content policy for the benefits of developing oil-rich countries is hardly new, adding that the continuous debate has often centered on increasing the value added that local content can create within the oil industry.

“As a bilateral chamber of commerce, we believe in the extension of the local content drive and the immediate synergies for local development in other sectors,” he said.

Also, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Bitru Nabasu, represented by the Director, Science and Technology Promotion, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Ekanem Udoh, said the presidential executive order 005 is a revolutionary document aimed at driving local production by way of value addition, stressing that the present administration is in the process of making the document a law and not just an order.