Niger Delta is rising to greatness. An edifice rising in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, symbolises the great future of the region and holds within it the promise of better tomorrow. When completed, the architectural masterpiece, a 17-storey building, will be the permanent headquarters of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
In fact, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Local Content, were amazed to behold the rise of the imposing structure recently. The committee members were in the state for their oversight function on the board.
At a glance, some of the lawmakers concluded that such superimposing edifice could only be the brainwork of prominent construction companies. When they saw the design and the quality of work so far done at the site, which is located close to Ox-Bow Lake in Yenagoa, some of them even dropped names of foreign firms.
But the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, shocked them. Everything about the rising building is local content. It is completely indigenous from the design, drawing, substructure and the developing superstructure. Many foreign firms wanted it but in the spirits of developing the local content, the board awarded it to an indigenous firm.
Some of the foreign firms, which lost out laughed at the board. They taught it was not possible for an indigenous firm to embark on such project. But the Mega Star Construction proved them wrong. The lawmakers were also surprised at the speed of work on the project, which is fully supervised by employees of the board.
Mega Star took over the project in May 2015. Already, the company has taken the massive structure to the eighth floor. The building is designed to accommodate over 1000 workers with a conference hall of 1000 sitting capacity. It has a separate building to be used as a multi-level car park, which had already got to an advanced construction stage. The car park is designed to house over 350 cars.
In fact, the progress of work on the building, described as the first of its kind in any Niger Delta State, thrilled the lawmakers. For the first time in the history of public projects, none had witnessed such rapid progress. The board is hopeful that the building will be handed over to them in December 2018.
Wabote, who described himself as the chief accounting officer for the project, explained to the lawmakers that the board decided to keep the project in-house to drive down cost.
The elated Chairman of the House Committee on Local Content, Mr Emmanuel Ekong, poured encomiums on the Federal Government and the board. “In the history of the Nigerian government, this is the first time government has started a project and achieved this progress in a very difficult terrain in less down two years.
“Some foreign companies struggled to get this project we just inspected. The question I kept asking myself as I was walking round this project is, ‘how do we diversify the local content into construction so as to project this company’?” He said.
Pointing at the Chief Executive Director of Mega Star, Ekong said: “This man needs to be shown the whole world. We need to sell him within the Nigerian market and we need to sell him to the whole world. No foreign company should come and tell me that a project like this cannot be constructed by a Nigerian firm.
“I am not talking because I am a true son of the Niger Delta, I am saying this because I am a patriotic Nigerian. The technology deployed here is amazing. I have seen things that made me so happy because it is happening in Nigeria.”
Ekong also appreciated Wabote for showing high level of commitment to the project. He said the committee would help the executive secretary realise his dreams of completing the project in record time.
But he appealed to Bayelsa youths to support the project. He said though local content is a national law, the youths should count themselves lucky for having such gigantic project in their domain out of 36 states.
Before inspecting the building, Wabote first led the committee members to a site of the proposed Pipe Mill project in Polako, Yenagoa. The lawmakers observed that the board had done a lot of work to prepare the site, which borders River Nun, to create irresistible environment for investors.
The area had been sand-filled and an access road cutting off the host community was being created. Wabote explained that the environment for the project was close to the required facilities such as water and a gas gathering plant in Gbarain.
He clarified that the board was not engaged in partnership with investors but was merely acting as a catalyst to create an enabling environment for investors. He insisted that without preparing the ground for investors, no firm would like to operate in a difficult terrain like Bayelsa and other Niger Delta creeks.
“This project will create jobs, retain the much-needed foreign exchange. So, any Nigerian partner who wants to partner with the Baird to act as a catalyst for in-country investments, the board is prepared to do so.
“Any foreign company who wants to invest in the country and wants the board to act as a catalyst for that investment it is within the mandate of the board to support the investment. It is the concept of domiciliation and domestication”, he said.
The executive secretary stunned the committee with various strategies adopted by the board to develop content in the petroleum sector. Most of the products hitherto imported by multinational oil companies are now manufactured in the country.
He noted that the board had increased the marine vessel utilisation, which was just about three percent when he took over to 36 percent. .
“There is still room. Although the current downturn has affected us. Prior to 2010, nobody thought fabrication could be done in Nigeria. But today Nigeria has the capacity. We have numerous fabrication yards today.
He clarified that the focus of NCDMB is not ‘Nigerianisation or indigenisation’ but the domiciliation of value adding activities in the sector.
“ It’s more about how to add value in-country. We seek to close supply gap by promoting local production and maximising utilisation”, he said.
He also told the committee that local content should not be restricted to the oil and gas sector alone. Arguing that employment generation in the petroleum sector was not as much as other sectors, Wabote asked the lawmakers to introduce local content in the construction, information and communication technology, telecommunication and the power sectors.
“We require the support of the National Assembly to see how we twig the Local Content Act to cover most of these sectors. We don’t want to create many local contents but the law can be twigged to bring these sectors under the local content”, he said.
Following the success of the local content in the oil gas sector, Ekong informed the executive secretary that the process of diversifying the content act was in progress. he said a bill to expand the Act had already been introduced in the assembly.
He said henceforth the lawmakers would not take local content infractions by companies lightly to ensure adequate participation of Nigerians in the oil and gas sector.
He said: “The multinationals must patronise these people, even CBN which is still building its headquarters using foreign companies must patronise these people (construction engineers)
“We hit multinationals to remit 1% of their funds which is enshrined in the law. Like I said the first reading has been passed. We are waiting to do some legislative fireworks fine-tuning the bill for assent by the president before the end of this year.
“ The infraction in the oil and gas industry and construction is child’s play compared to what happens in the oil and gas. It is unimaginable. Telecoms, power and ICT, these are major sectors we are looking at.”
Ekong urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to fully comply with the content Act since charity begins at home.
“The law is already there. That’s why we are here . The NNPC , NPDC which are Nigerian-owned cannot be above the law. If they have caused infraction in one way or the other, we are looking into it. They can’t be above the law.”
