NCDMB, MAN say oil service firms to benefit from free trade pact
Lagos -- Local oil and gas service companies and manufacturing outfits that have built their capacities and capabilities will benefit immensely from Nigeria’s recent signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, AfCFTA, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content
Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote and President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, have said.
Wabote maintained that if you take population into account as well as potential market and the general level of development of countries, the sky is the limit for any manufacturer that makes the right investment, and has the right quality and partnerships.
Ahmed, on the other hand, explained that AfCFTA will generate a market of 1.2 billion people and an active economy of trillions, adding that ”every manufacturer or investor should look at that and begin to thrive"
He charged Alcon and other manufacturers to take advantage of the opportunities presented by President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent signing of the continental free trade agreement, which will bring the 55 African countries into one common market.
Wabote and Ahmed spoke in Port Harcourt at the commissioning of Alcon’s ultramodern factory for electrical power distribution pPanels and switchgears, set up in partnership with ABB, a worldleading electrical and power original equipment manufacturer, OEM.
The facility has an annual capacity of 750 main distribution panels,1,200 sub-main DBs to over 5,000 consumer units and can engage 150 personnel.
Delivering the keynote address at the event, the NCDMB Executive Secretary stated that investments like Alcon’s opens the span of opportunities from the national to continental
levels.
According to him the” establishment of such manufacturing outfits will enhance the delivery of the target benefits under the AfCFTA agreement.”
He said: ”If you take the population of Africa and the potential market and given the general level of development of countries, the sky is the limit for any manufacturer that makes the right investment, has the right quality and partnerships.”
He commended Alcon for being the first company to obtain NCDMB’s ‘Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate, NCEC Category A’ for electrical switchgear and panel building, and announced that the Board would no longer grant approvals for operators in the oil and gas industry to import the products manufactured by Alcon.
He further charged the company to continue to deliver top-notch low voltage panels as well as introduce new products with the quality than can match those that are manufactured in any part of the world.
Wabote also commended Alcon for its ability to nurture a formidable partnership with ABB, stating that it ”attests to the fact that if local companies have the right processes and procedures in place, international OEMs will be willing to form alliances and partnerships that endure".
In his remarks, President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed charged Alcon and other manufacturers to take advantage of the opportunities presented by President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent signing of the continental free trade agreement, which will bring the 55 African countries into one common market.
He explained that AfCFTA will generate a market of 1.2 billion people and an active economy of trillions, stressing that ”every manufacturer or investor should look at that and begin to thrive".
He said was glad that Alcon is seeing this vision and there is plan for expansion. "As we go into the AfCTA, we are going to create a bigger market, four to five times bigger than what exists presently,“he further stated.