By Anayo Ezugwu
THE Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has reiterated its commitment to deepen local content development through collaboration with other African countries. Simbi Wabote, executive secretary, NCDMB, noted that Nigerian companies are well-positioned to collaborate with other African countries in terms of local content development.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Realnews in Lagos, Wabote said a lot of Nigerian companies are working outside the shores of the country at the moment. Nigerian companies, he noted, are providing services in countries like Uganda, Senegal, and Kenya in terms of providing them services particularly in the seismic interpretation and feasibility studies.
According to him, Nigerian companies have ventured into those areas since the discovery of oil and gas in most of those countries, including Ghana. “Also in terms of providing some vital services, for instance, chopper services, helicopter services. Today, Caverton, which is a company that started in Nigeria, is providing services to companies in Ghana. So that effort to penetrate has been ongoing, but is it getting the desired traction, the answer is no.
“The idea now is to say how to continue to create a platform for this discourse, to demonstrate the existing capacities and to see how we get African countries to realize that all of these services that they desire in the oil and gas industry can be gotten from sister countries, which of course brings down the cost of activity execution.
“With the African Free Trade Agreement, it provides a variable tool to share those services and reduce the cost of activities in the oil and gas sector. Presently, we recorded some successes, but I think we could do more. I think with information and people realizing that next down the capacity does exist, potentially a lot of actives are expected to happen in that sector,” he said.
Wabote urged Nigerian companies to utilize opportunities in the oil and gas sector to expand their businesses. He noted that there are a lot of areas that they can venture into as more African countries continue to discover oil. “The oil and gas sector is very extensive, direct and auxiliary services from drilling, fabrications to catering activities, logistics, legal, financial services, there is a lot to be done in the oil and gas industry.
“So, have we been able to tap those opportunities, the answer is no and that is what I mean by we could do more because we have not scratched the surface in terms of regional collaboration and country to country collaboration in oil and gas.”
– Feb. 28, 2020 @ 18:55 GMT |
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