Nigerian content retains $8bn annually, creates 50,000 jobs

THE implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act has created over 50,000 direct jobs in the local economy over the past 11 years, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Kesiye Wabote has said.

He stated this in Lagos during separate breakfast meetings he held with members of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers on Thursday and editors of newspapers and broadcast stations on Friday respectively.

He hinted that the level of Nigerian content in the oil industry hovered around five percent before the enactment of the NOGICD Act in 2010, however, the focused implementation of the Nigerian Content Law resulted in an increase to 26 percent in 2016 and 42 per cent as at December 2021.

Wabote explained that NCDMB had launched the Nigerian content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap in 2017, with a target to achieve 70 percent Nigerian content by 2027. As part of this goal, the Board would catalyse the creation of 300, 000 direct jobs in the oil and gas industry and linkage sectors, enable the retention of $13 billion out of the estimated annual $20 billion spend in the oil and gas industry and establishment of major fabrication yards and manufacturing hubs in-country.

He hinted that a pointer of the marked improvement in Nigerian content implementation is that the local economy used to retain little or nothing from the annual oil industry spend of $20 billion before the NOGICD Act, 2010 but is now able to retain more than $8 billion in-country per year.

The improvement is because of the development of critical capacities and assets by local oil and gas service companies and increased domiciliation and domestication of industry operations, he said.

According to the NCDMB boss,Nigeria has also moved from near zero participation in the operations side of the oil and gas sector “to the point that our indigenous operators such as SEPLAT, AITEO, EROTON, and others are now responsible for 15 percent of our oil production and 60 percent of our domestic gas supply.”