- Local content intervention fund hits $350m
Executive Secretary, Nigerian content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote on Tuesday said the board is focused on raising Nigerian content in the oil and gas sector to 70 per cent by 2027 as part of its strategic 10-year road map.
Wabote stated this when he delivered a keynote address at the Strategists Dinner Fellowship Investiture by the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria (ISMN), held in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
The event tagged “Economic challenges and prospects : Strategic assessment of local contents, risks and priorities”, witnessed the conferment of honorary fellowship awards on 42 persons including Wabote.
He said the board has already achieved 35 per cent implementation of the Act in the last 10 years, stressing that this was evident in the increased number of local fabrication yards, vessel ownership, and number of local oil and gas service companies.
Also speaking during a capacity building workshop for media stakeholders in South-south in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with the theme, ‘Sustaining Nigeria Content Development Amid COVID-19 pandemic: The role of the media’, Wabote said the Nigeria Content Intervention Fund (NCIF) has increased from $200million to $350million with new products.
He said despite the pandemic, the board had delivered immensely to ensure that operations of the oil and gas sector continued, even after many expatriates had gone back to their countries.
Wabote said though the pandemic ravaged the world’s economy and pushed Nigeria’s fragile economy into recession, the board and oil and gas operations in Nigeria continued, albeit in a restrained form.
