By the start of the century, it was obvious that local content development in Nigeria needed to be positioned on higher grounds. To achieve this, sleeves had to be rolled up so as to finally brighten the country’s future prospects in the area of technology and capacity building, especially in the oil mining fields. Dr Ibilola Amao, the principal Consultant of Lonadek Services had a role to play in order to shape a better outlook that the world now sees. Her thirst for engendering innovation in an underperforming industry has thankfully brought on several milestones to record many years after. In this interaction is where she lays out the timeline of how all the successes came to be.

About Lonadek

Lonadek Global Services is an ISO 9001:2015 certified engineering technology and information management company. We have been in operation since 1991, domiciling, democratising and domesticating technology in Nigeria. We work with our partners to identify local talent and upskill them to deliver services nationally and globally.

Milestones achieved in local content development Nigeria

The first thing I have achieved is domesticating technology. My doctorate was in Computer Aided Designing and Drafting. I specialise in 3D modelling of oil and gas facilities.

When I graduated in 1988, I worked for three years in the United Kingdom. I returned to Nigeria in 1991 and realised that they were using drawing boards to produce drawings even for oil and gas facilities. So, I set out to transfer technology to Nigerians and I had been fortunate to have been engaged by NNPC-NETCO in 1992 to train 67 young engineers who have been recruited by NNPC for Chevron’s Escravos gas project. Those young engineers trained that year are currently Executives around the world. One of them just retired as Group Executive Director in NNPC. Some of them are working globally as captains of industry. Training them from 1992 to 1993 and preparing them for EGP Phase 1 on the Chevron project is one of my major milestones. We were able to deliver in a timely manner on the milestone using the Computer Aided Design system, which was the first time that was done in Nigeria.

Over the past 30 years, we have empowered over 100,000 STEM talents to deploy technology. We have counselled them in careers, created industry awareness and empowered them to be able to provide services, both nationally and internationally. We are currently upskilling about 10,000 tech talents with Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub. We are partnering with proprietors and leaders of technology to provide digital twin solutions to IOCs, independent and marginal field operators. We have definitely done enough on the transfer of technologies, and we pride ourselves on having developed talents and executives who have passed through the LONADEK programmes.

Surviving and making waves in a male-dominated field

I was raised as a tomboy by my late father who was a civil and structural engineer. He knew I loved solving problems, climbing trees, catching butterflies, grasshoppers and nurturing them in bottles until they die. He encouraged me to pursue my love for mathematics, physics and chemistry. I went to an all-girls secondary school where there was no discrimination. I came out top of the class. From there, I went to the United Kingdom where I had my A level and there, there was discrimination as a black young girl coming into a computerised environment. I had not seen a computer in my life. I had to work extremely hard to change my brain from traditional mathematics in Nigeria to modern mathematics in England; change from where we are taught in the traditional ways to learning from experience and practicals.

Initially, I was laboratory-shy because I never had that experience. I had to change my learning style and had to work extremely hard to prove to my mathematics teacher, especially the fact that I am black does not mean that our brains are black.

When I went to Queen Mary College, University of London, I ensured I never missed a class. I was always in the library and the drawing office for an extra three hours a day. In the end, I finished with a first class even though we were two ladies in a class of 50. I have always been a minority in most instances. During my PhD at the University of Bradford, I was the only female among 12 people in my set.  I have gotten used to being a female amongst males; so, I don’t even see myself as a female anymore.

Having worked as an engineer for over 30 years, I don’t have that lens because my late father helped me by educating me and giving me excellent and exceptional educational opportunities. With a doctorate in engineering, there are not many men in engineering who have those qualifications and exposure.  He further encouraged me after I got my doctorate to go and train as a chartered engineer. I had to stoop to conquer. Despite having a PhD, I joined a graduate training programme with an engineering consulting outfit in Westgate, North England. This involved 18 months in the design office and 18 months on site. That exposure actually made me understand that I am cut out to be in the design office. I didn’t really like being on site because of the weather conditions and the kind of rough life.

I learnt a lot from that experience that as a female, you really need to understand the way you’re wired. You need to understand yourself and know where you want to play so that you can win. You must know that you can’t be everything to everybody. I probably wouldn’t have been successful if I wanted to prove a point on-site.

I realised that my intellectual capacity was my strength. Maths, physics and solving problems were my strengths. I love working on computers. So, indoors was it for me. That’s how I have been able to just focus on my strengths, and I have been very fortunate to have had male supporters as well as female role models who have guided and encouraged me to be who I am today.

Assessing the progress recorded implementing the NOGICD Act

I was one of the apostles of local content, having gone through the NNPC-VECTEL joint venture, which translated into NETCO. I had watched and experienced technology transfer first-hand in that joint venture. I have seen the importance of collaboration, cooperation and coordination between local companies and international companies to domesticate, democratise and domicile technology in Nigeria.

As far back as 1993-1994, I was already working with NETCO as a technology converter/technology transfer expert as a consultant. I remember very early in Engr. Ernest Nwapa’s career, Prof Pat Utomi asked him to come and talk to me about local content and transfer of technology because he had done a fantastic presentation during his Chief Officers Course and people wanted him to drive Nigerian Content. We have been very active as Nigerians working to see the passage of the Local Content Act.

So, in 2003, I set up the Oil and Gas Design Engineers of Nigeria, an association that actually pushed for the domiciling and democratising of technology. A group of us made a presentation to the GMD of NNPC, Engr. Funsho Kupolukun about why it’s important for engineering to be domiciled in Nigeria as against going to foreign offices to run the project.

I was actively involved in the setting up of the Nigerian Content Division in NNPC before it was passed into an Act. Having seen the process of Engr. Ernest (Napa) trying his best to engage the industry actively and push local content, Engr. (Joseph) Akande arrived and started using the strong whip to knock people into shape. After much effort, there was the establishment of the NCDMB after former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Local Content Bill. It has been very interesting.

I have watched the phases and witnessed different people coming to play their part. One thing I’ve noticed now is that Simbi Wabote is more collaborative and more involved in partnerships and strategic alliances to effectively get local content adopted not only in companies but also in our activities, our projects, and basically looking beyond Nigeria into regional content.

Invariably, there are different phases but one thing is sure: You really need somebody who has international, regional and national perspectives to be able to drive local content strategy that creates jobs and wealth for not just the nation but also the communities. For me, it has been a journey I’ve been very much involved with local content from the NCDMB side, from the PTDF side and from the IOC side. I’ve done quite a few of the local content studies, skills gap studies with PTDF and NCDMB.

It has been very interesting for me. The good news is that we are beginning to settle into understanding the importance of local content. The likes of PETAN, OGTAN, and Women in Energy Network have come on board to promote local content and I’m beginning to see the fruits, rewards and dividends of the hard work we put in place for many years.

I can say that before the advent of the Act, there were some jobs and spaces that were expatriate-driven. There were areas where Nigerians were not even playing in. For instance, marine vessels and asset ownership initiatives were predominated by foreigners. But with the establishment of PETAN to drive technological acquisition and with different initiatives that have come up, you can see that there’s a strategy behind empowering Nigerians and Nigerian businesses. The impact is being felt in the economy. Today, PETAN members are beginning to take local content to other African countries and take the lead in showing how it was done and how it works.

Possibility of OGTAN members forming a consortium to ensure training excellence

I have always believed that bridging the gap between industry and academia is key to knowledge and technology transfer. In terms of moving the needle of local content further, we need to build capacity, capability and competence, which is one of the key roles of OGTAN.

The way the association is structured now with over 200 or 300 members, it is just not ideal for me. I have always been a promoter of cooperation, collaboration and coordination of resources because of economies of scale. In order to accelerate the transfer of technology and empower our talents in Nigeria, there is a need for OGTAN to look at strategic alliances, partnerships, collaboration, joint ventures and consortiums to be able to deliver on their mandate.

Aside from that, we need to look at improving the situation in our universities. Our higher learning institutions require the kind of investment that is not necessarily placed in the shops of OGTAN members. I think centres of excellence should be located in higher learning institutions while leveraging their infrastructure and bridging the gap between industry and academia. As for me, I would say if we look at higher institutions in the six geopolitical regions or in the key geopolitical regions where hydrocarbon assets exist, we can consider partnerships where OGTAN members can invest in the centre of excellence in the chosen universities.

We must begin to consider institutions that have the potential to house centres of excellence. We should focus on the strength of each university and position them in a way that OGTAN members have the required partnerships with international proprietors of technology and are prepared to bring their partners into those higher learning institutions to build the capacity of the centres. This is the kind of conversation I’ve been having for years. As you know, many Nigerians who do not see the big and holistic picture want to promote their own businesses.

I have been in the game for over 30 years and I have been on the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineers Africa, which comprises 23 countries. In the UK, I’ve been on the Energy Institute Board for six years. I am now on the International Energy Week Board. I can see the big picture of where the industry is going globally, regionally and nationally. It will be smart and timely for OGTAN members to be compelled to invest in these centres alongside their foreign partners so that the universities are not just issuing university degrees to our Nigerian talents but international certifications on the back of autumn partnerships. With this, our Nigerian graduates can get jobs anywhere in the world upon graduation in Nigeria. There are so many international talent-hunting portals and manpower supply companies that would readily recruit Nigerian graduates if they have the right certification, the right skills and competencies.

I think we really need to collapse the multitude of silos we have in OGTAN and be more focused and strategic about building in-country capacity and capability through partnerships and collaboration. This is my suggestion as an expert in capacity building and having carried out several training courses for young graduates.

Thoughts on the employability of fresh university graduates in Nigeria

I do not believe that Nigerian graduates are not employable. As a matter of fact, the favourite talents I like to work with are fresh graduates because they’re always excited about learning new things. They are hungry for knowledge; they feel deprived that they may not have had the right kind of tutoring in our universities. They identify that they have a gap and are like sponges, just soaking up knowledge.

The problem we have is meritocratic recruitment. The meritocratic recruitment process is a situation where you have the right talents and the right people and you run your personality profile analysis to understand the strength and the passion of the fresh graduate. When you put them in the right training programmes, the sky is the limit because they have been deprived in our higher institutions. We need graduate training programmes and continuous professional development programmes. We need to encourage meritocratic recruitment for these young ones so that it is not garbage in, garbage out.

Current jobs Lonadek Global Services is executing

At the moment, we are very much involved in deploying engineering technology solutions for international oil companies. One of our partners is Viva Engineering Information Technology Solutions which is the proprietor of the digital twin solutions. The IOCs use our solutions on their FPSO. We do not only sell the technology but we are in collaboration with our partners. We also outsource skilled systems integrators, digital transformation specialists, and 3D modellers for Viva E3D in these organisations. We also have about 60 workers in NNPC’s subsidiaries. We have manpower supplied to the IOCs. Also, in our area of strength, which is capacity building, we do a lot of training. We have commenced the second cohort of Amazon Web Services CAD practitioner training. We’re currently upskilling about 10,000 Africans in the Diaspora and in Africa with Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub and we are working on building the capacity of women in energy, women in engineering and women in entrepreneurship, which is my passion because I really love working with girls in STEM.

Areas of improvement for NCDMB

One area the Board needs to improve is the schedule of the NOGICD Act. I would like to see an improvement in that area. I know the NOGICJQS portal has a lot of data, which can be mined for strategy and for rolling out more impactful initiatives. I also think the strategy of partnering with industry operators and service providers is very useful, and this is the way to go. But doing that more effectively should be leveraged with data and the historical records that have been gathered over the years.  We use the data we have gathered over 12 years to strategise for the next 10 to 20 years.

Making STEM education attractive to young girls

First, I will say we need to do a lot of career counselling. Career counselling is not just for the girl-child but also the girl-child’s parents, the STEM teachers and career counsellors. How do I convince a mom to allow her daughter to stay behind after school with a male physics teacher or a male maths teacher? It’s almost impossible today. Hence, we need to get more female math and science teachers and we have to get more educated parents, teachers associations need to look at building an ecosystem that is conducive for girls to venture into male-dominated courses and classes.

Secondly, there is a need to have programmes that meritocratically identify, develop and engage female talents in male-dominated sectors. We need to give them prizes and recognise them. We need to promote more female role models. Many mothers will say don’t study engineering or you won’t find a husband. I was told my marriage would crash, and some other terrible things. Of course, I’m a happily married woman now with three younger adults. My baby is 21. We need to let people know that you are not sacrificing your female personality because you want to become an engineer.

The onus is on empowering the girl-child, helping her to see the holistic picture of different career paths and guiding her to make the right choice based on who she is, her potential, her talent and her passion. Once you put a round peg in the round hole, it doesn’t matter whether you are female or male. The sky is the limit. Just get that right ecosystem for our girls and encourage them to take the bull by the horns.

This interview was originally published in the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board’s Local Content Digest. 

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.