The Nation Newspaper

Category: Energy

  • ‘Customers’ metering base to grow to 15m’ 

    Nigeria’s metering gap of approximately five million people, will in the long  run be more than triples, as Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) scheme gets underway, Armese Power Solution’s Chief Executive officer, Mr Imram Aslam Khoktar, has said.

    Armese,  is one of the Meter Asset Providers approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for the success of the new metering arrangement, which the Federal Government, launched in April 2018.

    He said the metering gap of five million people was far  below the one recorded by the eleven power distribution companies (DisCos) during the enumeration exercise conducted by the firms.

    Speaking to reporters in Lagos, he said the figures cumulatively declared by the DisCos are more than the metering gap of five million people, and as such means more jobs for MAPs.

    Khokhar said: “Enumeration exercise conducted by the DisCos showed that the requirement for metering is likely going to  tripled the number projected. The supply, on the other hand, has serious gaps in the existing capacities. The supply base is a mix of local manufacturers and importers.”

    According to him, local manufacturers are highly dependent on imports and therefore, are very few, adding that it would be difficult for local players to participate well in the metering sub-sector,  except there is funding.

    The foreign meter firms, he said, have no liquidity problems, adding that the issue made them to play better than the local ones.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he said, sometimes provided, (N200/billion) st  single-digit for operators, adding the development is a  good one, capable of engandering the growth of the MAO scheme.

    He urged meter asset providers to approach commercial banks for more money, with a view to grow their businesses.

    More Nigerians, he said, would get meters and improve investment in the sub-sector in the event that meter asset providers and other operators are able to raise enough money for the scheme.

    NERC’s order to meter asset providers to meet 30 per cent local content requirement, would help boost production of meters in the country and create jobs among other benefits.

    The firm, he said, is ready to meet the needs of its customers in Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa and other states in the Southeast in order to  assist in reducing  the widening metering gap in Nigeria.

  • Mallam Isiyaku Abdullahi’s Appointment: A ground-breaking achievement for Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry

    Mallam Isiyaku Abdullahi’s Appointment: A ground-breaking achievement for Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry

    With Nigeria’s state-run firm, NNPC, getting a new group managing director and a team of seven chief operating officers (COOs), additional senior appointments have been made. In essence, the state-run firm will have a complete changing of the guard that started on June 20 with the naming of Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari as Maikanti Baru’s replacement, and Abdullahi Isiyaku, as the new General Manager, Finance and Accounts of NNPC Pension.

    Sources said that the newly-promoted personnel would fill the vacancies that arose from the appointment of Kyari and his COOs some 17 days ago by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Apart from the promotions, NNPC also terminated the services of some personnel it deemed unneeded. The decision, it was gathered, was in line with Kyari’s thoughts on how to run an efficient corporation and Abdullahi’s advice on financial discipline for the country’s future.

    Isiyaku Abdullahi is an exceptional business strategist within the Nigeria petroleum industry since 1993. His appointment by President Buhari came at a perilous time when the industry’s accounting and financial sector is in dire need of a miraculous turnaround.

    Among those promoted were Musa Lawal Group General Manager (GGM) of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS); and Mansur Sambo, as Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC). On the list also were Adokiye Tombomieye, who would oversee the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of NNPC as its GGM; and Bala Wunti, who takes over as the Managing Director of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) of NNPC.

    There was also Meyiwa Eyesan, who was promoted as the new GGM, Corporate Planning and Strategy (CP&S) of NNPC, while Kate Iheme took over as the new Managing Director of the National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO).

    Others on the promotion list were Salihu Jamari, who now heads the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) as its Managing Director and Yinka Adeyemo, who became General Manager, Planning and Commercial of the NPDC. Bassey Essiet, General Manager, Planning and Business Development of NNPC’s Downstream Directorate; Chris Ugwu, General Manager, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) of the NPDC; as well as Billy Okoye, who will now run NNPC Retail, as its Managing Director.

  • INTELS graduates 80 women under WEPSS

    INTELS Nigeria Limited, an Oil and gas logistics operator, has graduated 80 women under its Women Empowerment Programme Scheme Synergy (WEPSS).

    WEPSS, a Corporate Social Responsibility programme of INTELS, was established in 2013 with the vision of empowering 5,000 community women drawn from various parts of Nigeria over a 20-year period through training in fashion design and tailoring.

    So far, more than 1000 women drawn from various communities have been empowered through the project. The successful trainees are the first batch of beneficiaries admitted into the scheme last January.

    At the event held at the Federal Lighter Terminal, Onne, Rivers State, the General Manager, Legal and Corporate Services of INTELS Nigeria, Mike Epelle, who represented the company’s Managing Director, expressed delight with the impact of the programme on beneficiaries since inception.

    He said: “This is a programme that the management of INTELS Nigeria Limited holds very dear to its heart. We are so proud and happy to know that this has continued right from the time it started and sustained up till date.

    “It was the dream of the wife of the founder of INTELS that there should be something like this set up for the women because it appears we have been paying too much attention to the men. So the idea is to have a balance. Let there be something that can be done for women and that is how this programme started.”

    He advised the beneficiaries to make necessary sacrifices required to put the skills they acquired during their training to good use.

    “Invest your earnings in the business. There will be enjoyment as the years go by but sustain and invest in the business. From the little you will start with, you can multiply and employ people. Look for the success stories, don’t let the training you have acquired here go down the drain.

    If you apply yourself well to what you have learnt and develop yourself even more, you will certainly be a success story.

    “Many people are making a huge living out of fashion; you can get there, just start and be consistent. Most of the establishments you hear about started many years ago and today have grown big,” he said.

    WEPSS Project Head, Nancy Freeborn, restating the company’s commitment to women empowerment, said apart from the tailoring skills acquired, the programme also inculcated “soft skills” including personal hygiene and how to run successful businesses after graduation.

    She said: “The skill you have been given is a gift from INTELS through the Women Empowerment Programme Scheme Synergy (WEPSS). That skill is what has allowed you to explore new ideas to create and to design. Make INTELS proud by putting into use the skills that you have acquired. It gives us a lot of joy when we go on our follow-up exercise and see people who are really putting into use the skill they have acquired.”

  • OPEC seeks early resolution to tensions in oil industry

    The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is seeking an early resolution between the United States (U.S.) and Iran and Venezuela.

    The oil cartel said easing the tension will help stabilise the volatile oil industry.

    “For us we will welcome a resolution of the issues that are at stake between these countries and the U.S. sanctions distort markets and further complicate our efforts with non-OPEC members to maintain stability,” OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo said.

    Both Iran’s and Venezuela’s production woes have contributed significantly to the cartel’s over-compliance to the group’s production cut quota, with Iran’s crude production falling from an average of 3.813 million barrels per day in 2017 to 2.370 million barrels per day in May 2019, and Venezuela’s crude production falling from 1.911 million bpd on average in 2017, to an abysmal 741,000 bpd in May, this year.

    But while the two countries combined seemingly did OPEC a favour by taking more than 2.6 million barrels of crude oil per day out of the market within that time frame, the tensions in the Persian Gulf and the dire situation in Venezuela are creating a market that OPEC is finding it difficult to both predict and manage.

    Though OPEC is hoping—but not holding out for—a swift resolution to two of its founding members’ production problems, the issue is not OPEC’s main concern. OPEC called out last climate activists as “perhaps the greatest threat to our industry going forward,” Barkindo said, taking specific aim at the “school strike movement” as well as climate campaigners.

  • My scorecard, by Baru

    The immediate past Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru, spent only three years in NNPC having been appointed to superintend the Corporation in July 2016 but from records, he would be leaving a landmark and guide for his successor, writes EMEKA UGWUANYI.

    On Monday, an elaborate valedictory was held for the immediate past Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru.

    The event offered top oil and gas industry players, diplomatic corps, and others an opportunity to reel out Baru’s stewardship in the corporation.

    According to them, Baru from the onset was result-oriented and set out to achieve his objectives for the corporation.

    To reposition the NNPC and make its operations efficient, Baru, in September 2017, presented a 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFAs) on which he intended to institutionalise efficiency, profitability and growth in the Corporation.  The 12 BUFAs include ensuring security of NNPC assets, developing new business models, settling Joint Venture (JV) cash call arrears, boosting production and reserve growth, growing crude oil production of NNPC’s exploration and production arm – the Nigerian Petroleum Development (NPDC) and gas development, developing renewable energy, focusing on frontier exploration undertaking oil and gas infrastructure development, developing new ventures, common services;  and professionalism, accountability and staff welfare.

    Recalling efforts made to actualise these goals, Baru stated that Nigeria’s crude oil average daily production recorded an upward swing of about 2.06million barrels last year, translating to a 10.75 per cent increment, compared with the 2017 average daily production of 1.86million barrels. Pitched against the low-level average daily crude oil production of 1.2million barrels in 2016 when he came on board.

    “Nigeria has maintained a line of consistent year-on-year improvement. I make bold to say that the crude oil production increment was facilitated through the new business models we emplaced in NNPC’s old and new business entitles. Among the reengineered entities of the corporation that have made the difference are the NPDC, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Duke Oil, NIDAS and Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL).

    “Indeed, NPDC was a major contributor to the industry’s success story in 2018, declaring 52 per cent daily crude oil production growth in 2018 compared with the company’s 2017 performance.  NPDC’s average production from the company’s operated assets alone grew from an average of 108,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2017 to 165,000bopd in 2018, a feat regarded as the strongest production growth within the oil industry in recent times.

    “The NPDC’s equity production share closed at over 207,000bopd, representing about 10 per cent of national daily production, was no less impressive. The company’s last average weekly production of 332,000 barrels per day makes the target of 500,000bopd for 2023 achievable. It is instructive to note that NPDC is now the largest supplier of gas to the domestic market, delivering over 700 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System. These desired results were outcomes of initiatives emplaced by the management team under my purview. These initiatives include Asset Management Tea m (AMT) structure, Strategic Financing, Units Autonomy and security architecture framework.”

    He also noted the 200,000bopd crude oil addition by the Egina field which began production this year, adding that NNPC management under his watch saved $1.7billion from renegotiating Cash Call arrears of $6.8billion to $5.1billion with the corporation’s Joint Venture partners. The balance is scheduled for repayment over a five-year tenor plan. Already, the corporation has defrayed $1.5billion of the arrears.

    He assured that NNPC would stick to the repayment deal with the JV partners as it transitions to self-funding Incorporated Joint Venture (IJV) model with the corporation’s partners. To ensure the government doesn’t default cash call repayment agreement, the NNPC has increased commitment to invest in the oil and gas industry, which has boosted the corporation’s credit profile internationally.

    Other achievements include reduction in contracting cycle for upstream operations to nine months from an average of 24 months, with the corporation targeting a six months cycle, lowering of production cost, from $27 per barrel to $22 per barrel and improving on the security situation in the Niger Delta through constructive engagement and dialogue with relevant stakeholders.

    Also, the NNPC has renewed focus on frontier basins leading to spud-in of Kolmani River-II Well on February 2, this year. Drilling on the well is nearing 10,000ft mark, even as the NNPC Frontier Exploration Services, the Division that superintends the inland basins exploration, recently moved to the Upstream Division of the corporation to afford it more visibility and empowerment to execute its mandate. The corporation also noted that activities were expected to resume in the Chad Basin as soon as there was green light on the security situation in the region.

    In the midstream sector, NNPC has helped in increasing average national daily gas production.  Last year, gas production was 7.90 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) as against 7.67bscf. Of the 7.90bscf produced in 2018, an average of 3.32bscfd (42 per cent) was supplied to the export market, 2.5bscfd (32 per cent) for reinjection/fuel gas, 1.3bscfd (16 per cent) was supplied to the domestic market and about 783mmscfd (10 per cent) was flared.

    Domestic gas supply capacity was marginally stable at about 1700mmscfd with an average of 1.3bscfd supplied to the domestic market due to power evacuation challenges caused by frequency management, following rejection of allocated load by distribution companies (DisCos) as well as transmission line constraints.  Of the 1.3bscfd supplied to the domestic market, an average of 71mmscfd went to the power sector, 470mmscfd supplied to the industries and the balance of 69mmscf delivered to the West African market through the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP).

    Baru stated that NNPC is expected to bridge the medium-term domestic gas supply deficit by 2020 through the corporation’s Seven Critical Gas Development Projects (7CGDPS). A reputable project management consulting firm is collaborating with an NNPC team to achieve accelerated implementation of the 7CGDPS.  The full implementation of the project would boost domestic gas supply from about 1.5bscfd to 5bscfd by 2020, with a corresponding 500 per cent increase in power generation and stimulation of gas-based industrialisation, he added.

    According to data, the power plants in the country have a permanent gas supply pipeline infrastructure and NNPC is committed to continue to expand and integrate its gas pipeline network system to meet increasing domestic gas demand.  Key gas pipeline infrastructure projects on which significant progress had been made include Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS II), Obiafu/Obrikom-Oben (OB3), Odidi-Warri Expansion Pipeline (OWEP), Trans Nigeria Pipeline Project (TNGP), Ajaokuta-Kaduan-Kano (AKK) Pipeline, Trans Nigeria Pipeline Project (TNGP) and Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NGMP) Project.

    In the refinery sub-sector, Baru said the NNPC is committed to the rehabilitation of the nation’s three refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, to boost their capacity utilisation. In March, the first phase of the rehabilitation of the 210,000 barrels per day capacity Port Harcourt Refinery complex that comprises the 60,000 barrels per day built in 1965 and the 150,000 barrels per day, new refinery, was kick-started. The project is being executed by Milan-based Maire Tecnimont S.p.A, in collaboration with its Nigerian affiliate, Tecnimont Nigeria. At the end of the phase one, the Refinery complex should reach 60 per cent capacity utilisation. This first phase of the rehabilitation contract, which would run for six months would involve detailed integrity check and equipment inspection of the beginning from end of March, this year.

    The integrity test comes as a forerunner to the second phase of the rehabilitation project, which entails a comprehensive revamp of the complex aimed at restoring the refinery to a minimum of 90 per cent capacity utilisation.

    Subject to the successful completion of the integrity checks, Phase two of the project would be executed on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) by Tecnimont, in collaboration with the original builders of the plant, JGC of Japan. The rehabilitation of the other two refineries in Kaduna and Warri is expected to follow.

    Baru noted that in the downstream sector, though early last year was riddled with some supply shortages, the corporation rose to the occasion with the support of President Muhammadu Buhari and the resilience and hard work of NNPC staff to keep the country wet soon after till date.

    So far, many of the corporation’s depots had been resuscitated and put into use through decanting of over 140 million litres of PMS (petrol) nationwide with the rehabilitated systems 2B and 2E pipelines supplying petroleum products to Southwest, Southsouth and Southeast regions.

    “NNPC is on track in respect of the corporation’s 12 key Business Focus Areas (BUFAs), and the vision of President Buhari to improve the status of oil and gas infrastructure through ensuring products availability to support national economic recovery and growth. The corporation will continue to plan for a better performance and achievement in 2019, especially with the continuous innovations and creativity in the downstream sector and the performance bond signed by all the relevant heads of the corporation’s operating units recently. Continuous improvement, a major plank of a world-class organisation, would remain NNPC’s key word in 2019, I assure you that our 2019 performance would dwarf the 2018’s,’’ Baru added.

  • Seplat makes case for ANOH gas at LSE

    Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc has identified the Assa North-Ohaji South (ANOH) gas processing project as very bankable and capable of boosting the country’s domestic gas supply.

    A Seplat team led by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Austin Avuru, gave a presentation on the company’s gas business to investors, sector and financial analysts during its Capital Markets Day at the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

    Seplat’s Chief Financial Officer, Roger Brown said the forum was organised to appraise investors of the company’s gas business with emphasis on the ANOH gas processing project.

    In a presentation titled: “Stability, performance, growth”, the team of six presenters provided the audience with comprehensive information on the company’s gas business, market outlook and anticipated ANOH growth trajectory.

    The ANOH gas processing project is managed by Anoh Gas Processing Company (AGPC), an incorporated joint venture (IJV) between Seplat and the  Nigerian Gas Company. AGPC shall develop a 300 Mscfd midstream plant on OML 53 to process future wet gas production from the upstream unit.

    During his introductory presentation, vuru highlighted that the ANOH gas processing plant will be the first stand-alone midstream joint venture business between the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a company in the private sector.

    With the ANOH project, Seplat aims to be the largest supplier of gas to the domestic market. The Seplat CEO added: “By the time we commission the ANOH project, we will be able to produce 850 Mscfd.

    “Overall, the gas business was not attractive in 2010 and some years after. Seplat however took a conscious decision to invest in the gas business upon the price of gas inching up as ‘willing buyer willing seller’ commercial terms became possible. The company is uniquely situated within existing gas pipeline network, and therefore leveraged on this to significantly expand its Oben gas plant.

    “The revenue from the expanded Oben gas plant has been impressive motivating the company to seek further investment in gas.”

    He explained that the company’s gas is for the domestic market, saying that Nigeria has a notable population which is projected to continue to grow to 450 million people by 2050.

  • NNPC’s claims of N305 to $1 a ruse, says MOMAN

    The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has denied claims that marketers are getting foreign exchange (forex) at N305 to a dollar for importing petrol.

    Its Chairman, Mr. Tunji Oyebanji spoke on the sidelines at the just-concluded Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja.

    He said total deregulation of the downstream sub-sector remained the best option.

    The Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Henry Ikem-Obih had said marketers were given forex intervention schemes at N305 to a dollar, rolled out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and co-managed by the NNPC.

    The MOMAN boss said: “I don’t know who is getting it at that N305. If NNPC is giving some marketers at that rate, I want to believe it is not transparent. I don’t know who is getting it.’’

    He continued: “If we are getting it N305 for importation of petrol, we will be importing, but we are not getting it. When the scheme started, that was the plan and CBN was the one handling it.

    “Eventually, the NNPC took it over and we don’t know who is getting it at N305. So, maybe he can enlighten us by publishing the names of those who are getting it.’’

    Oyebanji, who is also the Managing Director of 11Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc), added: ‘’We are not importing petrol at all, but if we want to import Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) or Aviation Turbine Kerosene (aviation fuel), we have to go and buy at N330 or N346.

    “You can’t compete because the NNPC is bringing everything at N305; so, it is not a level-playing field at all.

    “If we are getting forex at N305, may be we are able to import. But, again, technically, for the country as a whole, does it truly make sense? In the market, dollar is being sold at N360.

    “So, what Nigeria should be earning from every dollar it generates should be N360; that’s really the market value. Every time you are selling at N305, you are also subsiding and it’s a loss to the country. We all have to determine what we want to do.’’

    The MOMAN chief said there was no alternative for marketers to start importation of petrol until Dangote Refinery came on stream, which might ease supply and reduce fuel importation.

    “Marketers can’t import fuel because if the price remains at this level, how can marketers import when the landing cost is more than pump price? For now, only NNPC can absorb that.

    “And, indirectly, it’s you and I that are bearing the cost because the money would have been put in other things. We are all used to driving with cheap fuel. That’s what we seem to like.

    “The truth of the matter is that, deregulation is not an easy subject because there is obviously political ramification. If it was easy, it would have been done a long time ago,’’ he said.

  • ‘Oil firms flared $2.5b gas’

    Oil producing companies  flared gas worth $2.5billion (N875billion) in the last one year, The Nation has learnt.

    The firms include the International Oil Companies (IOCs), Independent Producers and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).

    Data from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) revealed that the volume of gas that was not commercialised (flared or re-injected) by March, this year rose to 42 per cent.

    Corroborating the DPR data, AfriPERA, an Energy and Infrastructure Policy research organisation, said Nigeria lost an average of N875 billion ($2.5 billion) between March, last year and March, this year from gas flaring.

    The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Chinedu Onyeizu, said: “Since the 1950s, Nigeria has been burning off its natural gas at flare points and, despite efforts by successive administrations to curtail the wastage, the country loses an estimated $2.5 billion yearly to gas flaring as well as the unattended impact of negative externalities associated to gas flaring.’’

    Also, the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) Chairman, Paul McGrath, explained that gas can provide steady, cost-effective and  affordable power to Nigerians.

    He added that a shift to gas-fuelled power generation would represent significant savings opportunities over sources, such as diesel, which is more expensive than gas at $2.5/mmbtu.

    Gas production, according to the DPR report, increased by 15.4per cent at 263.48billion cubic feet compared to the output in proceeding period of February, this year.

    This translated to an average daily production of 8,499.58 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd). Of the volume of gas supplied in March, last year, 155.01bcf of gas was commercialised, consisting of 40.35bcf, and 111.66bcf for the domestic and export markets.

    The report indicated that 58.81 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, and the balance of 41.19 was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared recorded gas flaring.

    The Senate, on April 18, this year, passed a new bill, which provides for a penalty against gas flaring and other malpractices in the oil and gas sector. Earlier, Associated Gas Re-Injection Act of 1979 checked sharp practices in the sector. Since then, there has been no review or amendment of the Act, despite its devastating effect on the host communities, until the bill was passed.

    One of the highlights of the new Bill is that any licensee, who supplies inaccurate data to the DPR or to any other lawful authority will be liable, upon conviction, to a fine of N10 million or be committed to prison for a term of six months or both.

    Other objectives of the Bill include ensuring that natural gas is not flared or vented in any oil and gas production operation, block or field, onshore or offshore, or any gas facility, which shall commence operations after the commencement of the Act.

    The Bill also seeks to ensure that no operator establishes an oil and gas facility without first obtaining authorisation from the minister for the design, commissioning and production phases. The Bill comprises 22 sections, including sections on punishment for the supply of inaccurate data, the gas flaring penalty fee, powers of the minister to make regulations, as well as a repeal of the Associated Gas Re-injection Act 1979.

    Sponsor of the Bill, Senator Bassey Albert, said: “The approval of the long-awaited legislation on gas flaring after 40 years is one of the best parting gifts, the Eighth Senate could possibly offer Nigerians at this time.”

  • INTELS graduates 80 women under WEPSS

    INTELS Nigeria Limited, an Oil and gas logistics operator, has graduated a batch of 80 women under its Women Empowerment Programme Scheme Synergy (WEPSS).

    WEPSS, a Corporate Social Responsibility programme of INTELS, was established in 2013 with the vision of empowering 5,000 community women drawn from various parts of Nigeria over a 20-year period through training in fashion design and tailoring.

    So far, more than 1000 women drawn from various communities have been empowered through the project. The successful trainees are the first batch of beneficiaries admitted into the scheme last January.

    At the graduation held at the Federal Lighter Terminal, Onne, Rivers State, the General Manager, Legal and Corporate Services of INTELS Nigeria, Mike Epelle, who represented the company’s Managing Director, expressed delight with the impact of the programme on beneficiaries since inception.

    He said: “This is a programme that the management of INTELS Nigeria Limited holds very dear to its heart. We are so proud and happy to know that this has continued right from the time it started and sustained up till date.

    “It was the dream of the wife of the founder of INTELS that there should be something like this set up for the women because it appears we have been paying too much attention to the men. So the idea is to have a balance. Let there be something that can be done for women and that is how this programme started.”

    He advised the beneficiaries to make necessary sacrifices required to put the skills they acquired during their training to good use.

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    “Invest your earnings in the business. There will be enjoyment as the years go by but sustain and invest in the business. From the little you will start with, you can multiply and employ people. Look for the success stories, don’t let the training you have acquired here go down the drain. If you apply yourself well to what you have learnt and develop yourself even more, you will certainly be a success story.

    “Many people are making a huge living out of fashion; you can get there, just start and be consistent. Most of the establishments you hear about started many years ago and today have grown big,” he said.

    WEPSS Project Head, Nancy Freeborn, restating the company’s commitment to women empowerment, said apart from the tailoring skills acquired, the programme also inculcated “soft skills” including personal hygiene and how to run successful businesses after graduation.

    She said: “The skill you have been given is a gift from INTELS through the Women Empowerment Programme Scheme Synergy (WEPSS). That skill is what has allowed you to explore new ideas to create and to design. Make INTELS proud by putting into use the skills that you have acquired. It gives us a lot of joy when we go on our follow-up exercise and see people who are really putting into use the skill they have acquired.”

    Twenty-six-year-old Esther Osarodanwi, who emerged the best performing beneficiary, was provided with a start-up kit which include an industrial sewing machine, steam iron, chair, scissors, seam ripper, box of tailors’ chalk and a measuring tape.

    Osarodanwi, who broke down in tears while receiving her certificate and the start-up kits, showered encomiums on the management of INTELS for impacting positively on women through the acclaimed empowerment scheme.

    She said the skill acquired during the training has helped develop her passion for tailoring and fashion design.

  • Content defaulters: IOCs, others to face EFCC for prosecution

    In the next few days, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and their local counterparts are facing prosecution for not remitting their Nigerian Content Fund to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the Board’s Executive Secretary, Mr Simbi Wabote, has said.

    The NCDF is one percent of every contract awarded to any contractor, sub-contractor, alliance partner or any other entity involved in any project, operation activity or transaction in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which shall be deducted at source and paid into the NCDF account.

    Speaking during a lecture titled: ‘’Promoting investment and collaboration in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry which opened in Abuja recently, he said the Board has complied the list of defaulting firms, with a view to handing them over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) for prosecution in few days time.

    He said it is worrisome that some oil and gas firms have consistently defaulted in the remittance of the one per cent deduction, warning that such companies should be ready to face the full wrath of the law.

    He said it is  worrisome that some oil and gas firms have consistently defaulted in the remittance of the one per cent deduction, warning that such companies should be ready to face the full wrath of the law.

    According to him, the Board is carrying out a forensic audit to determine the actual number of defaulters, how much they owed and subsequently hand them over to EFCC for prosecution.

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    He said the development would enable the board to recover its debts, as  well as serve as a deterrent to others.

    Wabote said:  ‘‘You cannot believe it that some companies including International Oil Companies (IOCs), indigenous firms and contractors and operators are not paying these funds. We are getting close to where we will hand them over to the relevant prosecuting agencies.’’

    To enhance accessibility to the fund, the Board in July 2016, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bank of Industry (Bol) to establish the NCIF.’’

    Companies,Wabote said, have so far accessed $160 million out of the $200 million Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) that is domiciled with the Bank of Industry (BoI).

    He said local firms had spend  $160million to build capacity, a development, which has left  $40million in the custody of the Nigerian Bank of Industry (BoI).

    He also  said the fund was also spent on building modular refineries, adding that the development has helped the Board to exit appropriation and further become a self-funding agency.