Olusegun Samuel
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote has called for collaboration between all stakeholders including the law enforcement agencies to ensure that the target of the local content act was achieved.
Speaking at a sensitisation program for law enforcement agencies in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, he said the level of Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry had increased to 42 per cent from just five per cent in 2010, before the passage of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
With the theme, ‘Deploying Multi-Institutional Approach to Nigeria Content Enforcement in the Oil and Gas Industry,’ the one-day sensitisation workshop drew participants from all the law enforcement agencies including the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the security agencies.
According to Wabote, the essence of the workshop was to ensure that NCDMB was able to bring in relevant stakeholders to support local content implementation and enforcement for a better result.
He said, “I think the two most important significant ones is to enlighten stakeholders on what we do, how we do it and the results we have been able to achieve.
“Then the second is also to highlight to them the role they are required to play and the role to play when that intervention is needed in order to help us strengthen local content enforcement.
“We have custom, EFCC, ICPC, DSS, these are all law agencies, they all have a role to play as we implement the Act, so these are the two significant aspect of the workshop.”
In his welcome address, Head of Legal Services, NCDMB, Naboth Onyesoh, said it was important that other agencies connected with economic activities understand what the mandate of the agencies was all about so they can support to ensure compliance with relevant requirements within the oil and gas industry.
“The idea is that local content is like a big load which no single entity can carry alone, it is a national economic agenda geared towards employment creation, industrialization, ensuring capital retention in the country and so many activities revolving around the oil and gas industry,” he added.
