The implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act has created over 50,000 direct jobs in the local economy over the past 11 years, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr Simbi Wabote, has said.
Wabote said this in Lagos during separate breakfast meetings he held with members of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers on Thursday and editors of newspapers and broadcast stations on Friday.
According to him, the level of Nigerian content in the oil industry stood at around five per cent before the enactment of the NOGICD Act in 2010.
He added that the implementation of the Nigerian content law resulted in an increase to 26 per cent in 2016 and 42 per cent as at December 2021.
Wabote said the NCDMB had launched the Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap in 2017, with a target to achieve 70 per cent Nigerian content by 2027.
He said the board would catalyse the creation of 300,000 direct jobs in the oil and gas industry and linkage sectors, enable the retention of $13bn out of the estimated annual $20bn spend in the oil and gas industry and establishment of major fabrication yards and manufacturing hubs in-country.
He said, “A pointer of the marked improvement in Nigerian content implementation is that the local economy previously retained little or nothing from the annual oil industry spend of $20bn before the NOGICD Act, 2010 but is now able to retain more than $8 billion in-country per year.
“The improvement is because of the development of critical capacities and assets by local oil and gas service companies and increased domiciliation and domestication of industry operations.”
