NCDMB turns internal expertise into training platform for staff, industry
NCDMB is turning knowledge across its seven directorates into a structured learning programme for staff and industry stakeholders.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is opening up the knowledge within its seven directorates through a new learning platform designed to help staff and oil and gas stakeholders better understand the Board’s work and how its different functions connect.
The Board on Thursday inaugurated the LearnFest Lecture Series in Yenagoa as part of efforts to strengthen continuous learning among its staff and industry stakeholders. The programme is being delivered under the Nigerian Content Academy (NCA), the Board’s specialised knowledge-sharing and training arm.
Rather than focusing on one area of the Board’s work, LearnFest is designed to give participants a clearer picture of how the different parts of the organisation operate. The inaugural three-hour session, attended by staff at the Board’s corporate headquarters, examined the roles of its directorates, divisions and departments and how their responsibilities come together to support the Board’s wider objectives.
In a promotional video for the programme, the Nigerian Content Academy explained that NCDMB’s institutional knowledge is distributed across seven directorates, each with its own mandate, processes, expertise and responsibilities. LearnFest is intended to bring that knowledge into one shared learning space.
The Academy said the programme would help staff understand “how everything fits together”, including the Board’s mandate, institutional processes, practices, culture and working relationships. A better understanding of what other units do, it noted, can improve collaboration and allow staff to work as a more integrated organisation.
Opening the event, the Director of the Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, said the Lecture Series was driven by the need to improve understanding of Nigerian Content tools and processes among both NCDMB staff and industry stakeholders.
Also Read: NCDMB opens Nigeria’s oil and gas market to Chinese manufacturers
For industry participants, he said, this includes understanding and interpreting the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010, the operational principles contained in the NCDMB Guideline for Nigerian Content Human Capital Development Implementation Strategy, the Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate, Nigerian Content Plans, statutory reporting requirements and issues relating to expatriate quota.
LearnFest, he said, “will make our work easier”.
Bamidele also disclosed that oil and gas operators and service companies, industry associations including the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria, academic institutions and ministries, departments and agencies had written to the Academy to express interest in sending their staff for specialised training.
That interest is also feeding into the Academy’s plans to build its own faculty. Bamidele said NCDMB is developing a pool of resource persons, with those delivering the LearnFest lectures potentially forming part of the Academy’s faculty. Participants will provide feedback on the suitability of presenters for future teaching roles.
The Board has also approved the use of its purpose-built facility in Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa, as a training centre for the Nigerian Content Academy.
The first lecture was delivered by Engr. Mofe Megbele, Manager of the Planning and Policy Development Department, who presented “Understanding the Activities and Processes of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate”.
His presentation covered the operating framework of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate, the work of the Planning and Policy Development Department, expatriate quota, inter-directorate relations, research and development, technology commercialisation and innovation, R&D infrastructure, NOGIC JQS user communication, Nigerian Content Compliance Forum objectives, the e-Marketplace and stakeholder engagement.
Megbele explained that the directorate consists of two major divisions, the Planning and Policy Development Division and the Research and Statistics Development Division, both headed by general managers. The Planning and Policy Development Department was established in September 2018 under Section 70 of the NOGICD Act and is responsible for developing policies and guidelines for internal and external stakeholders and monitoring their implementation.
LearnFest will continue monthly for the next nine months, with each edition focusing on a different directorate. NCDMB staff must attend, online or in person, while other oil and gas stakeholders are expected to participate in subsequent editions.
