The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company, have begun a collaboration and exchange programme towards boosting local content development and employment generation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The partnership was sealed during a recent visit by senior officials of the industry led by the executive secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Ernest Nwapa, to Petrobras office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The collaboration, according to a statement by the NCDMB spokesman, Obinna Ezeobi, followed the success of the Petrobras led PROMINP programme initiated in 2003 in response to the Brazilian government’s desire to increase the participation of Brazilians in the oil and gas value chain.
The PROMINP programme LEADERSHIP learnt, recorded significant progress in Brazil’s oil industry, such that local content in Brazil grew from 57 per cent in 2003 to 74 per cent in 2010.
Speaking during the visit, Nwapa stated that the board would benchmark its procedures and programmes with the Brazilian local content development model.
He said NCDMB would tap from the lessons learnt from the visit and would pay special attention to developing a robust local supply chain to promote local manufacturing of parts and components as well as after sales support.
He added that the board would also address shipbuilding, which was a high employment generating activity, to mimic the Brazilian experience where several jobs depended on the shipbuilding industry.
‘’Another idea that has worked for Brazil, which the board intends to midwife is an Inter-Ministerial Council, which will involve the leadership of different ministries, departments and agencies whose activities impact the Nigerian content implementation. The council, when established will hold consultations on a regular basis and bring up policies which will ensure that all agencies of government collaborate on Nigerian content development,” Nwapa said.
“The relationship with Petrobras is expected to include knowledge exchanges, understudy visits to build in-house capabilities in NCDMB and referrals of critical investors and suppliers to the Nigerian market,” the statement added.
In his comments, the Executive Manager, Local Content, PROMINP, Mr. Jose Renato, assured that Petrobras would work with NCDMB to build its capacity to position it to implement the provisions of the Act and achieve the aspirations of the government and people of Nigeria.
The visiting team included the general manager, Nigerian Content, Shell, Engr. Simbi Wabote; Head, Planning, Research and Statistics, NCDMB, Mr. Oluwole Akinyosoye; Manager, Onshore Assets, Chevron, Mr. Adekunle Adeyemo, among others.
Detailed benchmark studies across the local content governance structure, local content development programmes and initiatives as well as local content implementation processes and tools, were carried out by the team.