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NCDMB Tasks Media Stakeholders on Local Content

By EDDY OCHIGBO

Media stakeholders in the Northwest geographical zone have been tasked to create more awareness about the activities of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), especially in the area of the organization’s mandate of building local capacity in the nation’s oil and gas industry, so that citizens can key into the ongoing numerous interventions targeted at empowering the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

Speaking in Kano during the week, at a media stakeholders’ workshop put together by the NCDMB, the Board’s Director Legal Services, Barrister Mohammed Umar appealed to Energy Correspondents and other media stakeholders to create a media hub that would not only report the renewed direction of the oil gas industry but to also create the desired awareness for Nigerians to take ownership of the silent revolution in the industry.

“This media stakeholders meeting has become absolutely necessary to improve the capacity of Energy Correspondents and other media practitioners. We are all aware of the essential role the media plays in agenda setting, awareness creation, monitoring and evaluation. The need to localize the activities of the Board, publicize the essence of the Nigerian Content Act, carry our teeming youths along, cannot be overemphasized”, Umar told participants, stressing that achieving local content in the oil and gas sector, needs strong collaboration with the media, because the target is more or less a marathon, not a sprint.

On his part, General Manager Research, Statistics and Development, Malam Abdulmalik Halilu, who is deeply involved in policy formulation in NCDMB, explained that there used to a time when Nigerians were worried that major oil companies were divesting from Nigeria and pessimists thought that we had come to the end of the road.

“There used to be a time when people were worried that major oil companies were divesting from Nigeria and a lot of people thought that that was the end. So if Shell tries to relinquish its ownership we are doomed. But things have changed for the better. Before now, the contribution of the indigenous producers to overall daily production was a marginal 3% but today we’ve achieved 10%. And the aspiration is to take it to 30%. I am sure you are aware that Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), is currently breaking new grounds”, Halilu revealed, pointing out that the kind of growth trajectory being seen in the industry, in terms of the domestic producers, have been very encouraging.

Halilu, who presented a paper on ‘Nigerian Content: 10-Year Roadmap: Targets Milestones, disclosed that with sincerity of purpose NCDMB has been able to reduce the contracting circle considerably. And going forward, he said, “there is currently a plan on how we can integrate with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry for joint qualifications system and with these unfolding engagements, we are certain that we would further reduce the contracting circle. We are doing this baseline census project, where we are trying to get the entire industry’s capacity in fabrication, engineering, well-drilling and services, shipping and logistics”.

Academicians, Malam Mohammed Auwwal and Professor Ayodele Joseph of Bayero University Kano and Kaduna State University respectively, made separate presentations on ‘Improving Writing Competencies to meet Evolving Media Trends and the ‘Role of the Media in Public Policy Framing – Case Study of Nigerian Content’.

The Dangoruban Kano, Alhaji Abubakar Sule Gaya, who represented His Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero at the occasion, thanked the organizers of the event for their various youth empowerment programmes in the Northwest geopolitical zone, assuring that the Kano Emirate is in full support the Interventions.

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