The Senate Committee on Local Content says it will continue to create the enabling environment to increase Nigerian participation in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, gave the assurance at the Content Tower in Yenagoa during an oversight visit to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.
While in Bayelsa State, members of the Committee of the tenth Senate visited some project sites of the NCDMB.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content said the first of the series of oversight visits was to verify NCDMB’s compliance and implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development. NOGICD Act and assess the level of participation of Nigerians in the country’s hydrocarbon industry.
Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas stressed that the benefits of Nigerian Content were enormous as it would lead to the creation of jobs for citizens. Also the development of critical assets and skills, the growth of local businesses, the improvement of balance of payments and the reduction of dependence on foreign goods and services.
He reiterated the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s Administration in growing local capacity, creating massive employment for teeming graduates and artisans. Reducing the outsourcing of Nigerian jobs to expatriates.
They were part of a session that featured a presentation by the Director of Capacity Building at the NCDMB. Alhaji Abdulmalik Halilu on the Board’s activities.
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To achieve these objectives, he noted that synergy between the Senate Committee and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board was essential to ensure the effective implementation of the Act.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ede Dafinone, expressed satisfaction over some of the sites inspected during the oversight visit to the NCDMB.
Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Engineer Felix Omatsola-Ogbe, while welcoming the Senate Committee, reiterated the Board’s readiness to actualise Nigerian Content in the nation’s oil and gas sector, especially on the Back to Creek Programme, which aims to catch them young.
Members of the Senate Committee on Local Content, during their visit, assessed the level of work at the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industrial Park site at Emeyal One Community in Ogbia Local Government Area.
