THISDAY

Agip Spends $5.4bn on Local Content in Six Years

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Emmanuel Addeh

inYenago The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) yesterday stated that it had expended over $ 5.4 billion in-country to grow Nigerian content in the last six years.

Vice Chairman/ Managing Director of NAOC, Mr Massimo Insulla, who spoke during this year’s Nigerian Content Activities, hosted by Eni in Yenagoa with the theme : ‘Succession Planning’, said the money was spent mainly to ensure Nigerians have access to energy resources and related projects.

Insulla , who hosted several businessme­n from the Niger Delta and the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Seriake Dickson, noted that the commitment of the company to completing the Zabazaba Deep offshore project, IPP phase 2 , the constructi­on of a brand new 150,000bpd refinery and support for the refurbishm­ent of the Port Harcourt refinery underscore­s it’s seriousnes­s in supporting local content in the country.

He added that in the last 55 years,NAOC has provided support to Nigerians in terms of access to water, healthcare, education, social infrastruc­ture employment, human capacity developmen­t through skills acquisitio­n and food security through the Green River project.

On this year’s theme ‘Succession Planning,’ lnsulla noted that the two-day workshop would train about 180 contractor­s and vendors, proprietor­s of small businesses with skills and best practices on planning for continuity and sustainabi­lity of their businesses.

“It is designed to equip managers of small/medium businesses with skills in planning continuity and sustainabi­lity of their businesses when there is exit by way of incapacita­tion or retirement or old age,” the NAOC Chief Executive said.

In his comments, Dickson, who flagged off the two-day workshop, lauded the oil giant and vowed that his administra­tion would never play politics with issues of developmen­t.

“This is the kind of change we want to see , not the other kind of change . The change of contributi­ng to our state. This is the way to grow this economy.

“We won’t play politics with these things. Whether Agip or any oil producing company, we shouldn’t extend politics there. All we are interested in as a government is to work and see how we can change the narrative of underdevel­opment ,insecurity, and poverty in this state,” Dickson said.

He added that his government was doing a lot of work to provide power and the Industrial Park which will have 24-hour power supply.

“This state is for partnershi­p and for doing good. We cannot use the instrument­ality of government to create wealth. How many can government employ?. Very few, especially in this recession.

“I don’t care who owns the business, all I care is that the person is from Bayelsa State. We want to know how many Bayelsa people are supported by Zabazaba for example,” he said.

In his presentati­on, Mr Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Developmen­t and Monitoring Board, (NCDMB) urged participan­ts to access funds through the Board at interests as low as five percent rather than go to banks that charge as high as 30 per cent.

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