Wabote Urges Indigenous Oil Firms to Embrace Good Corporate Governance

Peter Uzoho

With many indigenous Nigerian oil and gas companies struggling to survive due to multiplicity of risks, the local content regulator has stressed the need for them to instil principles of corporate governance in their operations to enable them grow, compete and achieve sustainability.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote, gave the advice while speaking virtually at a ceremony held in Lagos to mark the rebranding of the Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc into Aradel Holdings Plc.

Wabote, who said that many local oil and gas companies had collapsed due to non adherence to corporate governance principles, lauded the management of Aradel Holdings for setting high standards of corporate governance in the organisation.

The NCDMB boss charged indigenous producers to emulate Aradel Holdings and to take corporate governance seriously, recommending that owners of businesses should detach themselves from the daily operations of their organisations.

He noted that one of the things the Chairman of Aradel,  Ladi Jadesimi; the former Managing Director of the company, Dr. Layi Fatona and their team had done was instilling good corporate governance in the company.

“That is why the company is succeeding. The owners of the business are not contractors; they do not engage contractors and they do not engage in round-tripping. That has led to their success,” he stated.

Describing Aradel Holdings as a good example, he noted that the company had made significant returns to its joint venture partners.

 “They are one of the local companies that NNPC Limited is proud to associate with. NCDMB is also proud of their success and we will continue to support them,” he assured.