The African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) has announced its preparedness to collaborate with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPs) in capacity building.
The organization made this known recently when its delegation led by the Director of Research, Dr. Najah M.O. Terha paid a two-day study visit to the headquarters of the Board in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
The APPO delegates visited and inspected NCDMB facilities including the 17-storey Nigerian Content Tower located in Swali, Yenagoa and the Board’s flagship project- the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPs) in Emeyal 1, Ogbia, Bayelsa State.
Speaking during the visit, Dr. Terha noted that the purpose of the visit was to assess some oil and gas training and research centres and institutes in Nigeria to ascertain their capacity, quality of programs and determine current capacity and future expansion requirements where necessary.
The Director said that the APPO team also wanted to confirm the willingness of the management of those centres to serve as regional APPO centers of excellence, and to collaborate with peer institutes in other APPO member countries in the field of technology development and training.
Terha further pointed out that their visit was in line with the organization’s mission to promote cooperation among member countries by encouraging synergies and sharing of experiences through regional training and research centres in Africa which will help in addressing major challenges of the energy transition in the continent.
In his welcome remark, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, represented by the Board’s General Manager of Research and Statistics, Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu, explained that NCDMB had since its inception in 2010 shared experiences with other African countries on the operations of Local Content and how to implement the policies successfully.
The NCDMB boss noted that the Board had also set an agenda for a common Local Content programme for the African continent.
The ES in his presentation outlined Nigeria’s Local Content Journey and the Board’s Research Commercialization Framework, saying that “We at NCDMB are happy with this meeting because we believe that Opportunities should not only be within borders, but opportunities should also be beyond borders.”
Taking the APPO delegates round the oil and gas park, the NCDMB boss explained that the facility is set up to incubate the manufacturing of equipment, spare parts, chemicals, and other inputs used for the oil and gas industry and ancillary sectors, adding that the facility will be commissioned in the last quarter of this year.
“We have taken them through our strategy, Human Capital Development, Research and Development, growth of Local Content and its success stories and to be practical in our demonstration, that is why we are visiting the oil and gas park,” he added.
In addition, the NCDMB’s General Manager of Capacity Building Division, Mr. Ama Ikuru, in his presentation captioned ‘Human Capital Development (HCD) and Nigerian Content Development’, highlighted the Human Capacity Development Implementation Framework.
According to Mr. Ikuru, the Framework is aimed at identifying quality delivery and cost efficiency, ensure competitiveness, fairness and national spread of candidates, maximize the employability of trainees and sustain growth of local training capacities.
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