NCDMB Charges Anambra Journalists on Oil, Gas Opportunities and Accountability

By Kasie Abone

The media must take a more proactive role in promoting Nigeria’s local content policy by highlighting opportunities, monitoring compliance with relevant laws and examining the effects of oil and gas operations on indigenous businesses and host communities, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has stated.

Speaking at a one-day capacity-building workshop for media stakeholders at Golden Tulip Hotel, Awka, on Thursday, October 15, 2026, the Board’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Dr Obinna Ezeobi, described journalists as vital partners in implementing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010.

Ezeobi said the workshop was intended to enhance journalists’ knowledge of the NCDMB’s mandate, programmes and interventions, while providing them with the skills needed to report accurately and effectively on the technical aspects of the oil and gas industry.

He urged journalists to utilise their platforms to promote opportunities open to Nigerian businesses and professionals, increase awareness of government initiatives and ensure that industry operators complied with local content obligations.

According to him, the advancement of Nigerian content required continuous cooperation among industry operators, government agencies, businesses, host communities, professionals, academic institutions and the media.

He said the NCDMB had regularly interacted with media organisations nationwide because effective communication and stakeholder involvement were essential to the success of public policies.

Ezeobi noted that the Board’s Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap, launched in 2017, listed collaboration and stakeholder engagement as key factors in achieving the goals of the local content policy.

He clarified that the policy extended beyond Nigerian participation in oil and gas operations, explaining that its wider aim was to build indigenous expertise, reinforce local manufacturing, increase industrial capacity and retain greater economic value within the country.

He also revealed that the Board had been rated Nigeria’s foremost federal agency in the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council’s rankings for four successive years, from 2022 to 2025.

The Board stated that well-informed and investigative media reporting was crucial to ensuring that the gains of Nigeria’s local content policy produced concrete economic benefits for citizens, especially in states with substantial oil and gas resources.

The workshop was the first edition of the NCDMB’s annual media engagement programme in the South-East since the initiative began in the Niger Delta in 2019.

Presenting an overview of the Board’s mandate and accomplishments, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr Silas Omomehin Ajimijaye, said the NCDMB was charged with building Nigerian capacity while ensuring that operators adhered to the provisions of the NOGICD Act.

Representing the Executive Secretary, Engr Felix Omatsola Ogbe, Ajimijaye stressed that the advantages of local content should reach beyond oil-producing communities and the Niger Delta to Nigerians throughout the country.

He advised entrepreneurs, job seekers and other potential industry participants to enrol on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System portal, where relevant industry opportunities and qualification procedures could be accessed.

Ajimijaye listed some of the Board’s interventions as facilitating more than 15 million man-hours of training, assisting start-ups towards commercialisation, issuing Nigerian Content Equipment Certificates and creating the $350 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund.

He added that the Board was carrying out training initiatives for thousands of Nigerians in 10 key areas regarded as vital to the continued development and sustainability of the oil and gas industry.

The programmes, he explained, were designed to build indigenous capacity, enhance access to industry opportunities and enable Nigerian businesses and professionals to compete successfully in the sector.

The NCDMB officials stressed that journalists needed to understand these initiatives and the regulatory structure guiding the industry so they could give the public reliable information and assess whether the goals of the local content policy were being fulfilled.

Anambra Pursues Greater Gains from Gas Resources

The workshop also highlighted the importance of Anambra State converting its natural resource wealth into industrial expansion, job creation and better economic prospects.

The state Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, who represented Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, said Anambra possessed an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, accounting for approximately 15 per cent of Nigeria’s total reserves.

Mefor voiced concern that the state had not maximised the benefits of its gas resources and had previously been excluded from gas development programmes.

He said the Soludo administration was committed to making Anambra a hub for gas-based industrial development, adding that proper utilisation of the resource could drive industrial growth, aid power generation and create jobs.

He praised the NCDMB for taking the capacity-building programme to the South-East and expressed hope that increased media participation would improve public knowledge of opportunities within the industry.

Mefor also pledged to present the workshop’s message to the governor.

The NCDMB described Anambra as a strategic venue for the engagement because of its status as an oil-producing state, its estimated initial output of about 3,000 barrels of crude oil daily and the presence of leading indigenous oil and gas firms.

Notable indigenous operators linked to the state include Oilserv, established by Engr Emeka Okwuosa, and the Nestoil Group, founded by Dr Ernest Nnaemeka Azudialu-Obiejesi.

The Board said the state’s increasing importance in the industry made it necessary for journalists to understand the opportunities available to its people and businesses through the local content framework.

In addition to policy education, the workshop included sessions aimed at improving journalists’ professional abilities, strengthening their reporting of complicated industry matters and helping them produce engaging stories capable of competing for national journalism awards.

The programme also explored the connection between Nigerian content and community development, emphasising the need for media reports to link industry operations with their broader economic and social effects.

Participants praised the Board for bringing the programme to the South-East and requested continued capacity-building activities to improve journalists’ knowledge of the oil and gas sector.

The event was attended by senior NCDMB officials, including the General Manager, Zonal Coordination, Mr Ifeanyi Ukoha; Assistant Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr Teddy Bai; and Senior Supervisor, Media Relations, Mr Ifeanyi Nwokemodo, Dr Nelson Obinna Omenugha as well as media professionals from Anambra State.

The workshop concluded with a fresh appeal for closer cooperation between the Board and the media to encourage informed public discussion, reveal opportunities, improve accountability and ensure that Nigeria’s local content policy produces measurable gains for indigenous enterprises and communities.