‘Nigerian content created 35,000 jobs in 7 years’

Over 35,000 jobs have been created in the nation’s oil and gas sector since the Nigerian Content Bill was signed into law in 2010, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr. Simbi Wabote, has said.

The industry’s in-country has also hit annual spend of $5 billion, which was half of its projection in 2010, the NCDMB boss said at the inauguration of Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN)’s executive council in Lagos.

He added that: “Before 2010, we targeted four pipe mills; today we have two world-class pipe mills and five impressive pipe coating yards. Before 2010, only 3 per cent of marine vessels are Nigerian owned or Nigerian flagged; today, we have 36 per cent of marine vessels owned by Nigerians. Before 2010, we had no active dry-dock facilities. The few we had were abandoned and left to rot away. Today, we have four active dry docking facilities in PHC, Onne and Lagos.’’

Wabote stated that in the areas of domiciliation of oil and gas equipment manufacturing, giant strides had been made, with lots more to be achieved when the board’s oil and gas parks come on stream from 2018.

The executive secretary said the Nigerian content implementation had increased the level of industrialisation of the Nigerian economy, adding that local companies could now do full engineering fabrication in-country.

He emphasised that his agency was working to provide multi-platform access to the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) targeted at various segments of the service companies in the country.