According to him, the collaboration was also aimed at linking the mandates and outputs of the agencies to benefit local content and support Federal Government’s drive for employment generation, in-country value addition and overall economic transformation.
He encouraged the agencies to assess their capabilities and achievements and synergise them for well-coordinated economy, adding that agencies with mandate to develop local capacity needed to avail other sectors with the expanded capacities while agencies that have fund pools needed to work together to support local supplier development.
Nwapa further charged agencies involved in training of the need to synchronize the skill sets that were needed by the economy, while other agencies dealing with technology development, investment promotion needed to help the agencies that depend on their output, adding that such synergies would have enduring impact and help to galvanize the economy.
He stressed that such collaborations would address worrisome scenarios whereby some agencies committed funds and trained experts but cannot find jobs for them; technology was being acquired but not being deployed because the industry is too far away and investment promotion efforts are going on and a lot of people are coming into the industry, but we are not getting traction because they do not know exactly the policies of government that supports investment.
The Executive Secretary reported that the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act in the past four years had transformed the practices in the oil and gas industry, noting that lessons learnt and capacities developed in the process can be leveraged to develop local content policies in other sectors so that maximum benefits can be derived.
He said, “we have observed from feedback that unless we expand the basket to accommodate other sectors of the economy, we will not get the optimum benefits. For instance, while investors will say that 800,000 tons annual steel demand by the oil and gas industry is not enough to attract a pipemill factory, when the demand from water and railway are added, the picture becomes more appealing.”
He added, “The sectorial linkage forum will expand the market for all of us and in the process meet the expectation and the vision of Mr. President which is to create more job opportunities for Nigerians, create more shop floors, establish positions where Nigerians can begin to learn to innovate and apply the innovation to real life activities.”
The Executive Secretary added, “finance is a major issue. We need financial engineering to fund the acquisition of big ticket assets like marine vessels and rigs. It is a matter of national security to ensure local ownership of these assets.”
Applauding the Board for convening the gathering, the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack underscored the efforts by Mr. President to transform the power sector from a government monopoly to a private sector led competitive sector which will generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020, stimulate economic growth and deepen opportunities for local content development.
He reported that Nigerian Content had taken root in the power sector as two companies had started to manufacture prepaid meters in-country while an Indian company was gearing up to assemble transformers.
He promised that continuing investments in the sector and policies being put in place will ensure that adequate power is available for the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industrial Parks being developed by the Board in nine oil producing states.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, commended NCDMB for initiating the move to build synergies across sectors, adding that developing local content in the Information and Communication Technology sector will position Nigerian companies to provide ICT services and equipment to government and the oil and gas industry and create thousands of jobs.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Managing Director, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, Mr. Uche Orji pledged that his agency will consider the possibility of creating an investment scheme that will support the acquisition of hi-tech oil and gas assets which ordinarily stretch the funding capacity of local business men and financial institutions, while the acting Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagunju promised the Bank’s support for the Board’s initiatives, including providing project financing for Original Equipment Manufacturers seeking to establish in Nigeria.
The Head, Public-Private Partnership, SMEDAN, Dr. Friday Okpala who attended the meeting pledged the commitment of his agency to participate in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industrial Park scheme of NCDMB by helping to identify SMEs with pedigree in manufacturing and promote local manufacturing of components of oil and gas equipment by SMEs.
The representative of NOTAP at the meeting also explained that the agency was implementing several initiates aimed at boosting research and development across sectors of the economy and pledged to act as a catalyst for linking research to oil and gas industry, work with the Board to promote technology acquisition by the local supply chain and participate as a member of Oil and Gas Technology Development cluster.
