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Oluwasina Phillip
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has said that it won’t invest in oil and gas businesses that are competitive.
The Board also said it would only partner with strategic policies and projects that are promoted by the Federal Government and would not invest in oil and gas businesses that have competitive private players.
The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, made the clarification when he hosted members of the Women in Energy Oil and Gas Nigeria, led by their President, Dr Oladunni Owo, at the agency’s liaison office in Abuja.
He was quoted in a statement as saying that the NCDMB would not invest in competitive business areas because such investments would compromise its morale position as a regulatory agency.
He said in line with its vision to serve as a catalyst for the industrialisation of the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its linkage sectors, the Board had partnered with investors in modular refineries, manufacturing of LPG cylinders, LPG depots, gas processing facilities, lube oil production plant, and a methanol plant using gas as feed stock.
Wabote listed some policies introduced by the board to support women in the oil and gas industry to include the inauguration of the Diversity Sectorial Working Group in the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum and the creation of the Women in Oil and Gas Product in the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund.
“Our role is to act as a catalyst of strategic government policies and programmes and we exit once those businesses become successful,” he said.
According to him, the NCDMB is a regulatory agency and not an interventionist organisation and will not get involved in programmes outside its mandate.
He said the Bank of Industry is responsible for managing the NCI Fund, assessing applications and disbursing loans to approved companies.
“The NCI Fund is one of the most successful loan schemes. About 98 per cent of the borrowers are paying back because we go through a very rigorous process,” he said.
Wabote said the Project 100 Initiative of the board was designed to nurture 100 wholly owned oil and gas service providers in a competitive and sustainable way through targeted interventions into larger-scale players that create high impact.
He said some Project 100 companies were owned and managed by women and the participants were selected through a transparent process without recommendation from any quarters.
