The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has urged indigenous oil operators to comply with the Nigerian Content Act to make the industry robust for all stakeholders.
The Executive Secretary, ES, of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote gave this charge at a breakfast meeting with members of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, in Abuja.
He lamented the increasing number of the indigenous operators who tried to side step the provisions of the law.
Wabote stated that the NCDMB Act enables the board to protect indigenous producers especially in the oil and gas sector.
He decried the current state of indigenous producers’ lack of compliance, describing it as act of sabotage.
“We fought for you but you now sabotage the oil economy”, he said and urged those harbouring a sense of entitlement to desist from such act.
Wabote also noted that some indigenous operators try to save costs and care for profit more than national interest.
“They want to be exempted from the Local Content Act. We have made it clear that the law is for all”, he said.
He stated that it is wrong for a local contractor to win a job and employ 90 per cent expatriates, thereby causing job loss to Nigerians.
Wabote said the frowns against who embark on project execution without getting approval as well as non-registration of their foreign workers in the expatriate ledger.
“They find it difficult to pay the one per cent levy stipulated by the Act. That is why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is now after some of them”, he said.
The ES noted that Nigeria has moved from three per cent local content value in the oil industry to 54 per cent, adding that if indigenous operators do not arrest the growth path by capturing the regulatory system, Nigeria will hit the 70 per cent target.
Wabote therefore, encouraged indigenous oil producers to comply with the board Act in their own interest and that of the nation.
Recall that the Executive Secretary had in August stated that many indigenous oil and gas companies closed shop in Nigeria because they do not adhere to corporate governance principles while speaking in a ceremony marking the rebranding of the Niger Delta Exploration and Production, NDEP, into Aradel Holdings.
