The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has
began to provide guidance to the Ugandan Petroleum industry on the
implementation of local content in their budding oil and gas industry.
A delegation drawn from four different agencies in the Ugandan
petroleum department visited NCDMB yesterday, to understudy the
implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content
Development Act, in the oil and gas industry and seek counsel on how
to implement a similar policy in their country.
Leader of the delegation and Head of National Content, Petroleum
Authority of Uganda, PAU, Mrs. Betty Namubiru, explained that Uganda
discovered oil in commercial quantities in 2006 and had a reserve base
of about 6 billion barrels.
Namubiru indicated that the Ugandan oil sector needed an investment
inflow of $35 billion and was expecting $20 billion over the next
three years.
According to her, in Uganda, we are currently developing our oil and
gas facilities, perfecting its policies and conducting studies on the
best methodology to adopt in extracting and managing our petroleum
resources.
The visit to NCDMB is intended to enable the participating officials
to understand key areas to focus on in our national content drive, so
our country could derive maximum in-country value from the projected
investments.
Uganda has a long-standing relationship with Nigeria and this is just
the beginning because our oil and gas sector are just evolving. We
want to learn more about the steps you took in setting up your 10-year
roadmap to grow Nigerian content to 70 percent.
Receiving the delegation, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr.
Simbi Kesiye Wabote stated that Nigeria was one of the leading nations
in the world petroleum industry and was very advanced in the area of
local content.
Making a presentation on the activities and achievements of NCDMB,
Wabote disclosed that certain parameters were necessary for
sustainable Local Content implementation, listing them to include gap
analysis of the industry, capacity building, regulatory framework,
incentives, and research and development.
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He informed the Ugandan delegation that local content needs the
participation of foreigners and foreign direct investment to thrive,
adding that Local Content was not a corporate social responsibility,
rather it promotes the domiciliation of value-adding activities.
Represented the General Manager, Research, Strategy and Development,
Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu, Wabote further stated that Local Content
requires the support of government at the highest level and should not
be interpreted as an effort to nationalize foreign businesses.
He also assured that Nigeria was happy to share knowledge on its local
content practice and provide guidance to Uganda and other African
countries in their quest to improve local content implementation.