Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has declared its intention to partner with Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Free Trade Zone Enterprises (DPRP) on the effective implementation of the Local Content policy in the country
Director, monitoring and evaluation, NCDMB, Akintunde Adelana, who represented the board’s executive secretary, Simbi Wabote, made this disclosure during the DPRP Nigerian Content Sensitisation/Awareness Creation Programme, titled: “Let’s Walk the Nigerian Content Talk Together,” at Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos.
Adelana said, “The Dangote Refinery project is expected to close a major gap in the supply of petroleum products in the country. We consider this as a very important project and we are willing to partner with the company to ensure full implementation of the local content policy. We embarked on this journey with the company a long time ago and we are ready to partner with the Dangote Group.”
"Part of what you see to today is part of our efforts to ensure that the company and its contractors comply with the local content policy and they have put in a lot of efforts in this regard,” he added.
Wabote described the Local Content Act as the quantum of composite value added to, or created in the Nigerian economy by a systematic development of capacity and capabilities, through the deliberate utilisation of Nigerian human, material resources and services in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
He said the country recorded loses prior to the enactment of the local content policy, which he noted, came from jobs executed abroad by International Oil Companies (IOCs), operating in the country.
He further added, “The narrative then was that nothing can be done in-country. Plants and modules were fully fabricated offshore without any structure in place to achieve knowledge transfer. Before 2010, we had no active dry-dock facilities. The few we had were abandoned and left to rot away. Today, we have four active dry docking facilities in Port Harcourt, Onne, and Lagos.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the chief operating officer, DPRP, Giuseppe Surace, said, “The programme was organised to ensure that our contractors are well informed about the Nigerian Content Act and this is expected to assist them with the execution of not just the Dangote project, but other projects in their portfolio.”
