Senate Committee Seeks Amendment of Local Content Act

.Lauds NCDMB

The Senator Committee on Local Content has called for the amendment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICD) Act to provide clarity to some vague and ambiguous expressions in the law.

The committee has also called for a review of the waiver provisions to rephrase the section on penalty for effectiveness and undertake a holistic review and repackaging of the Act to cover other sectors of the economy.

Speaking at the end of a three–day capacity building workshop organised for the Senate Committee on Local Content in Accra, Ghana, the chairman of the committee, Senator Solomon Adeola also commended the NCDMB for its strategic implementation of the NOGICD Act and the steady growth in local capacities in the oil and gas industry.

Adeola pointed out that the Senate capacity building workshop was necessary to develop legislators’ understanding of NCDMB’s mandate, and the journey so far.
All the eight Senators in attendance, including the Senate Minority Leader and Vice Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Godswill Akpabio also re-echoed the same opinion and promised to support the Board to ensure that Nigerians derive more benefits from the industry.

The Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Abiodun Olujumi noted that the participation of two principal officers of the Senate – with six other senators clearly showed the importance the upper legislature attaches to the issue of local content in Nigeria.

Speaking on the topic, “Structure and Operation of the NCDMB”, the Executive Secretary of the agency, Mr. Simbi Wabote, reaffirmed the determination of the Board to fulfil its mission “to be the catalyst for the industrialisation of Nigerian oil and gas and its linkage sectors”.

He acknowledged the encouraging remarks of the Senators noting that their commendations and positive feedback will act as fresh tonic to the Board in the pursuit of its strategic objective to increase Nigerian Content performance to 70 percent in the next ten years.

The workshop had many papers presentations from a cross section of professionals.
The papers were followed with Panel Discussions. There were lively and extensive question and answer sessions.
The senators also identified the urgent need to resuscitate technical and vocational education (TVE) as a vector for human capacity development.

They observed that the curriculum of science, engineering and technology courses offered in Nigerian Universities and other tertiary institutions needs to be reformed and reorganised to meet requirements of the Oil and Gas Industry.

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