By Thompson ABISOLA
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), on Wednesday said it had raised $200 million (about N72 billion) to facilitate local content development in the oil sector.
The board had the statutory mandate of promoting Nigeria content development, especially in the oil and gas sector.
The NCDMB Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Naboth Onyesoh, who spoke to newsmen about the operations of the board, said the fund was contributed by the stakeholders.
The fund, called “Nigeria Content Intervention Fund (NCIF), was launched in 2018 with various applications for the loan already received.
“The stakeholders are the various oil and gas servicing firms operating in Nigeria.
“The fund which has been deposited with the Bank of Industry (BOI) for proper management is meant to be disbursed as loans to enable firms acquire platforms.
“The ideology behind the fund is to facilitate local content development to bolster facility ownership in the multibillion naira businesses that happen to be the life wire of the Nigerian economy.
“The process of getting the loan is made seamless for all the stakeholders with only local contractors in the oil and gas that are non-contributory beneficiaries of the NCIF,’’ Onyesoh said.
He said LADOL and STARZ were two firms that benefited from the former regime of the fund.
Onyesoh said the organisation would soon look at the pool of applications for the fund, with a view to drawing up list of beneficiaries for fund disbursement.
