How the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) got on board to sign an agreement with Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry regulator points to a friendship that has long been in the making, like when the Board hosted the Petroleum Commission of Ghana (PCG) at a knowledge-sharing networking event in Lagos on 12 August 2024. That was meant to last five days, and the other returned the favour a month later.

That very intimate engagement weeks back has morphed into a sister partnership enabling both sides to grow. NCDMB under Executive Secretary Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe is making exceptional strides in its local content drive already but there is still enough room to re-harness its strength and that is what a signing ceremony at the sidelines of the 2024 Annual Local Content Conference and Exhibition held at Takoradi, Ghana and ending tomorrow will probably do.

Part of what the obligations entail involves NCDMB offering technical support in the development of the framework in the formulation of regulations, says a press release by the Board about the new step.

It is an MoU that will be active for three years unless renewed. The motivation for coming together more strongly ties with the appetite that exists between both agencies wanting to build synergies through information sharing and transfer of skills of mutual interest and benefits.

Without the 2010 Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, NCDMB wouldn’t be an entity in existence capable of steering partners to their greatness.

The annual local content conference in Takoradi which started Wednesday 2 October 2024 lasts up to the 4th of that very month although Engr. Ogbe wasn’t physically there. At the event themed “Attracting E&P Investment to Boost Local Content: New Pathways”, the Board’s top executive was represented by the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu, and the Director of Legal Services, Mr. Naboth Onyesoh, Esq. Both saw to signing the Memorandum of Understanding.

NCDMB duo Halilu and Onyesoh co-signed with the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of Petroleum Commission, Ghana, Mr Egbert Fabille Jrn and the Acting General Counsel, Nana Akua Agyei, and that made the pact all the more sealed.

Back in February 2022, the Board also signed a different version of the agreement with Senegalese partners. Specifically, it was the Technical Secretary of the National Content Monitoring Committee of Senegal (ST-CNSCL) with whom NCDMB had the agreement on behalf of the francophone West African country. The goal was to assist the Senegal side with administering its oil and gas assets. 

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Time after time, NCDMB’s Engr. Felix Ogbe emphasises the benefits of a working African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that further entrenches the need for closeness and ensures growing commercial ties at high speed.

Since Africa holds 10 percent of the globe’s hydrocarbon resources, estimated at over 125 billion barrels, all should be hatched. NCDMB’s position in actualising this will be the post of a business enabler that equips others for success. The way it looks like the Board is doing at home although there are still several challenges to surmount.

Meiza Nigeria