The Nigerian Content Development& Monitoring Board on Thursday won yet another accolade-Recipient of The Nigerian Risk Award-for its successful implementation of the Nigerian Content Act, which is impacting positively on the local economy, attracting over $5bninvestment in four years, creating over 52,000 jobs and generally transforming the way Oil and Gas Business is done in Nigeria..
The award, which was the first edition, was conferred on the Board at a ceremony in Lagos attended by bigwigs in the oil and gas, insurance, banking and allied sectors of the economy.
The Nigerian Risk Award which is modeled after the UK version was organized by Conrad Clerk, an international Risk Management company.
Speakingat the event, the Chief Executive of Conrad Clark, Mr. Joachim Adenusi explained that the Board was selected as the top performing organization in Oil and Gas Industry from a survey it conducted on a cross section of industry stakeholders.
According to him, “In 2010 the Federal Government took a giant step by making the Nigerian Content Act a reality.”
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board under the leadership of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke has deployed a strong implementation regime in collaboration with stakeholders to promote investment in Assets, facilities & infrastructure, domiciliation of work scope, training& employment of Nigerians and use of local resources for industry operations.
“The NigerianContentActis enablingourpeople, strengtheningthem, empoweringand
The Award was received on behalf of the Honorable Minister who is also the Chairman of the Board’s Governing Council by the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Ernest Nwapa who described the award as a significant milestone whichdemonstratesthe impact oftheAct’simplementationonlinkage sectors.
He thanked Conrad Clark for the honor and indicated that the NCDMB is frequently nominated for variety of Awards, but special care is always taken to ensure that the Board only accepts Awards that can be genuinely linked to the work of the Board.
“In this case, it is easy to see why the Board deserved nomination for the Risk Management Award considering the increased market share of Nigeria Insurance companies occasioned by implementation of the Act which has increased Local underwriting capacity by over two hundred percent in the past three years”
It will be recalled that multinational operating and service companies resisted the legislation and highlighted the risk to the government that signing of the Bill will hurt the smooth operations of the industry and derail the national economy.
“When the Honorable Minister was appointed in 2010, she was confronted by the position of key stakeholders of the Oil and Gas industry but had to weigh in on the national development imperatives of the Nigerian Content Law.
The Executive Secretary further explained that the signing of the Nigerian Content Bill into law by President Goodluck Jonathan was a calculated risk to promote overriding National interest. Therefore successful implementation of the Act’s provisions by the Honorable Minister, Governing Council, Management and staff of NCDMB involved skillful risk management applications worthy of recognition.
Nwapa enthused that the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act has been a game changer in the operations of the Oil and Gas industry, contributing immensely to the nation’s economy and being extended to other sectors.
He further advised investors in fabrication, manufacturing, drilling, shipping, engineering and other areas of the industry to embrace risk management initiatives in view of the massive work, investment inflow and increasing transfer of control to indigenous players.
The Executive Secretary also challenged banks to adopt modern risk appraisal methodologiesinlongtermtransactionswithindigenousoperatorsandservice companies.
The Board and Management of NCDMB have been conferred with several awards in the past three years, one of which was the Oil and Gas Man of the Year won by the Engr. Nwapa in February 2012 and the Oil and Gas Fund of the Year conferred on the Nigerian Content Fund inFebruary2013.
