• Appoints Ag. Executive Secretary
Following its recent pasage, the Federal Government last week officially unveiled the all-important Local Content Bill, even as it announcd the appointment of the former Group General Manager of Nigerian Content Division of NNPC, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, as the Acting Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Regulatory Board (NCRB).
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who, along with the Group General Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Shehu Ladan, the Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum, Upstream, Senator Leo Meaba, unveiled the document containing the Nigerian Content Act at the event, described the law as a major milestone capable of crystallising development in the country.
"As I unveil this Act, the regulation to set up the new implementation framework will kick in. A Nigerian content development and monitoring board will be immediately created which will be responsible for the Nigerian content regulation and superintend over all Nigeria content activity," she said.
The minister, who also lamented the inadequacies of the nation’s oil sector, added that it was regrettable that the Nigerian oil and gas industry that spends an average of $18 billion on annual basis had over 90 per cent of all the goods and services used in the sector imported from overseas.
"Government continues to plough in enormous resources into the industry, unfortunately, the impact on the wellbeing of our people from oil industry activities is still not at par with international benchmarks and well below the target of 70 per cent set by government," she said.
"As a nation blessed with vast natural resources, a population of over 150 million and persistent to succeed, the Nigerian Content Act will certainly create employment for our teeming youths in the Niger Delta as well as other parts of the country.
"It will set the template for expanding the concept of local content into other sectors of the economy," she said.
Accoridng to her the success of the new law requires the establishment of some critical facilities that would support the operations of indigenous operators, adding that the law would provide a major opportunity for investment by Nigerian and international investors which will benefit from the commercial attractions associated with the Act.
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