Indigenous oil and gas companies have capacity to achieve 80 percent of engineering design – NCDMB

Simbi Wabote, executive secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), says Nigerian oil and gas companies have the capacity to achieve 80 percent of engineering designs.

Wabote disclosed this while delivering a keynote address at Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Research and Development Fair and Conference coordinated by NCDMB in Lagos on Thursday.

He said that there are five key parameters for sustainable local content practice including an enabling regulatory framework backed by appropriate legislation, structured capacity building intervention (essential to spur domiciliation of capabilities in-country), and periodic gap analysis.

Others are fiscal and monetary incentives needed to attract new investments and keep existing businesses afloat where required, and research and development (R & D).

He went further to say that since a regulatory framework namely NOGICD Act 2010 came in existence, engineering design capacity has grown to 80 percent with 30,000 new jobs created and delivery of over six million training man-hours, as well as the award of over 90 percent of contacts to Nigerians oil and gas firms.

Also, capacity building interventions in NCDMB have increased the in-country value retention from less than five per cent before the NOGICD Act to the current 26 per cent.

Wabote said fiscal and monetary incentives are necessary to attract new investment and that in partnering with the Bank of Industry (BOI), a $200 million intervention fund for Nigerian oil and gas service providers contribute to the Nigerian Content Development Fund with single digit interest rate of eight percent on loans extended to Nigerian oil and gas companies.

He further explained that R&D is the bedrock of innovation and that it is essentially an investment in technology and future capabilities, which will transform into new products, processes and services.

He named countries such as South Africa, China, India, United States, South Korea and Singapore as examples of countries that developed a world-class R&D capacity with government support.