The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, (NCDMB), recently organized a one day stakeholders’ forum for youths from the oil and gas producing states of the Niger Delta. The event which held in Benin City, Edo State, was aimed at enlightening the youths of the region on the benefits inherent in the Nigerian Content Act.
During the forum, participants were briefed on the implementation strategies of Human Capacity Development through the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System, (NOGICJQS) portal, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme, (NOGaPS) SME networking opportunities and other significant achievements of the Board since its inception in April 2010 when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan signed the Local Content Bill into law.
Delivering a keynote address, the Executive Secretary, Dr. Ernest Nwapa, hinted that the forum was designed to intimate young Nigerians seeking information on how to actively get involved in oil and gas industry activities through human capacity development with goals and visions of empowering the Nigerian youth through the Local Content Act.
Dr. Nwapa who was represented at the event by the General Manager, Zonal Coordination and Board Projects, Dr. Ginah O. Ginah, asserted the Board’s emphasis of the Nigerian Content policy to be about domiciliation of work in-country and the development of local capacity with the associated benefits and not indigenization.
He disclosed that under the Nigerian Content Human Capacity Development Initiative, thousands of young Nigerians have been trained and attached to various projects in the oil and gas sector to gain requisite industry experience and ultimately permanent employment.
According to the Executive Secretary, the theme of the stakeholders forum, “Local Content: Youth Involvement and Benefits,” was carefully chosen to highlight opportunities and specific trainings required to boost employability of youths in the oil and gas industry.
He lauded President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for signing into law the Nigerian Content Act just as it urges Nigerian youths to take advantage of it to improving themselves and boost the nation’s economy.
The Board’s chieftain charged participants on the essence of the forum to expose them to the various opportunities available to the youths and how they could be involved and benefit from the process through the NCDMB, while asserting that the Local Content Law was the instrument of transformation of the Niger Delta.
In a panel discussion at the forum, participants allayed that the Nigerian Youths must desist from using violence to compel companies operating in their regions to get them employed but rather they should upgrade themselves academically so that they could be able to understand the workings of oil exploration in their areas.
Highpoints of the forum were a multimedia presentation on the workings of NCDMB, presentations on the Overview and Profile of the Board, success stories from beneficiaries of the post NCDMB Human Capacity Development Training and a presentation on the employability of youths in the oil and gas industry by an OGTAN representative.
In a communiqué released at the end of the gathering, participants agreed that the opportunities offered by the Local Content Law far outpace the benefits from the 13 percent derivation thereby urging continuous enlightenment campaigns across the Niger Delta states on the functions of the Board and how the youths can avail themselves of the provisions of the Act.
It also resolved that there should be enforcement of Nigerian companies who are beneficiaries of the Act, not to use their status to enslave the personnel engaged to work in such companies. The meeting called for the implementation of Community Content in the oil and gas industry apart from the Nigerian Content which the current law emphasizes.
Delegates were drawn from Youth Leaders of oil producing communities of the Niger Delta consisting Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ndokwa, and Edo. Others were Ikwere, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and the Youth wing of Ohaneze Ndigbo representing the Egbema/Omoku/Oguta extraction.
