NCDMB mentors Uganda on local content implementation
PN ort Harcourt -- The
i g e r i a n C o n t e n t Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has begun to provide guidance to the Ugandan Petroleum industry on the implementation of local content in its budding oil and gas industry.
A delegation drawn from four different agencies in the Ugandan petroleum department visited the NCDMB recently to understudy the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act and seek counsel on how to implement a similar policy in their country.
Leader of the delegation and head of National Content, Petroleum Authority of Uganda, PAU, Mrs. Betty Namubiru, explained that Uganda discovered oil in commercial quantities in 2006 and had a reserve base of about 6 billion barrels.
Namubiru indicated that the Ugandan oil sector needed an investment inflow of $35 billion and was expecting $20 billion over the next three years.
According to her, "In Uganda, we are currently developing our oil and gas facilities, perfecting its policies and conducting studies on the best methodology to adopt in extracting and managing our petroleum resources.
"The visit to NCDMB is intended to enable the participating officials understand key areas to focus on in our national content drive, so our country could derive maximum in-country value from the projected investments.
"Uganda has a long standing relationship with Nigeria and this is just the beginning because our oil and gas sector is just evolving. We want to learn more about the steps you took in setting up your 10-year roadmap to grow Nigerian content to 70 percent."
Receiving the delegation, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, stated that Nigeria was one of the leading nations in the world petroleum industry and was very advanced in the area of local content.
Making a presentation on the activities and achievements of NCDMB, Wabote disclosed that certain parameters were necessary for sustainable local content implementation, listing them to include gap analysis of the industry, capacity building, regulatory framework, incentives and research and development.
He informed the Ugandan delegation that local content needed the participation of foreigners and foreign direct investment to thrive, adding that local content was not a corporate social responsibility, rather it promotes the domiciliation of value-adding activities.