With the conference of practical ideas over, NCDMB now wants to gain from the 1.2billion people AfCFTA market share
AfCFTA promises to create a market share amounting up to 1.2billion people as the eighth economic bloc in the world with a $3-trillion combined GDP, likely to more than double by 2050. So, how would Nigeria and the NCDMB ensure they tap into the benefits?
The Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum 2024 on Thursday 5 December reached its final day for gathering delegates, so there was the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, with thanks to everyone who participated on the eve of the co-hosted event closing.
By everyone, Engr. Ogbe appreciated oil and gas industry stakeholders including policymakers like federal ministers who attended, the wealthy multinationals who have the capacity to make big funds investments within the sector, likewise top-ranking vendors and staff of the Board for their contributions in ensuring the 13th edition of the forum ends up being successful.
The annual conference officially commenced on Monday at the Conference Centre of the Nigerian Content Tower (NCT). Over there, the executive secretary praised the participants for immersive involvement which he believed had enriched discussions while his organisation launched into the next frontier of Nigerian Content which could now be said to be underway.
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Delivering his address four days ago, Engr. Ogbe reiterated the Board’s determination to deepen engagements with local communities and oil and gas industry players through sundry schemes newly introduced.
A few of these are the Back-to-the-Creeks Initiative, the Revised Nigerian Content Community Contractors Financing Scheme, the Nigerian Content Academy, and the creation of more conducive and befitting zonal offices to enhance service delivery.
The Back-to-the-Creeks policy in particular, says Engr. Ogbe was designed to equip youths in our communities with the skills to meet industry demands by giving a facelift to basic educational facilities while motivating the teachers who hold there as a base to dispatch learning.
The Board has increased the Contractors Financing Scheme from a single obligor limit of ₦20 million to ₦100 million, which gives more opportunities for local contractors to access higher figures, which then enables them to secure and execute meaningful contracts in the oil and gas industry.
If dutifully pursued, it is expected that the scheme would bring the benefits of local content to communities, and there goes the NCDMB keeping up with fulfilling more of its mandate under new leadership.
The Executive Secretary, who was represented by the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Barr. Esueme Dan Kikile, by 7 December, 2024 will be marking exactly one year in office.
Relying on his representative while he sees through the successful conclusion of the 13th Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum that ended in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State yesterday, he expressed joy that the Board’s partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI) is working well, and that performance is at optimal level hence local contractors should get ready for their involvement.
With the Nigerian Content Academy, here is a culmination of 14 years of steering Nigeria through a national objective to grow home-bred professionals within the oil and gas industry they operate. Hatching this initiative has been key to exemplifying all that the Board stands for in enabling a business environment using local hands.
This means, according to the NCDMB’s executive secretary, that apart from his organisation possessing the requisite experience or the in-house capacity, there is a suggestion that the Board also has gathered the understanding of what it means to practise Nigerian Content. There is evidence in this because other sub-Saharan African countries have sought to learn from the exposure the agency has attracted to itself.
Now that this chapter of the PNC Forum has closed, there is an expectation that conference partner DMG Events Limited will be able to develop key actionable points from the PNC Forum that taxis the oil and gas sector to the next frontier of Nigerian Content implementation. The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010 demands that there should be such.
Since trading commenced on 1 January 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been the world’s largest free-trade area.
AfCFTA promises to create a market share amounting up to 1.2billion people as the eighth economic bloc in the world with a $3-trillion combined GDP, likely to more than double by 2050. So, how would Nigeria and the NCDMB ensure they tap into the benefits?
The Senior Trade Policy and Law Expert at the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office, Abuja, Mr. Olusegun Olutayo was at the PNC Forum to show how. He specifically discussed the topic – “AfCFTA: A Panacea for Africa’s Economic Rebirth”.
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Eight Protocols in total, namely, Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), Investment, Competition Policy, Digital Trade, and Women and Youth in Trade show a path to how the continental trade agreement would serve Nigeria.
According to Mr Olutayo, it is with these protocols that prosperity, that integration, that economic revolution, that industrialisation, actually comes.
