Entrepreneur Lists Gains of Local Contents Policy
3 min read
One of the best things to have happened to indigenous companies and Nigerian entrepreneurs is the enactment of the law on local contents, resulting in the birth of the Nigerian Contents Development Management Board, NCDMB, says the chairman of Lee Engineering and Construction Company, Chief Leemon Ikpea.
He said this when the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, led a team from the Board on a visit to his firm. According to him, “foreign companies cannot transfer technology to us. It is only indigenous companies that can and have demonstrated such potential through intensive capacity building programmes, acquisition and deployment of hi-tech operational equipment and actual execution of projects.
He drew attention to the company’s feats in industrial equipment manufacture, the over 350 projects executed by Lee Engineering thus far, -including the Utorogu Gas Plant and the 150,000-barrel-per day Odidi Flow Station, and a workforce of 3,500 Nigerians to buttress his claim regarding the remarkable success achieved by indigenous companies. “This is a sign that local content is working,” he noted.
Recalling the state of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria in the early 1990s, Ikpea noted that the dominance of foreign companies and production inputs and the attendant massive capital flight, was exceedingly disturbing and ruinous to the Nigerian economy and that Nigerian engineers in the sector like him became agitated and initiated the push for local content.
According to him, the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD] Act, 2010, marked a turning point for the industry and the nation as indigenous oil and gas companies were thus enabled to vie for and execute projects.
An excited Ogbe who spoke at facility tour of the 10,000 square metre fabrication yard of the company in Warri, Delta State assured Nigerian oil and gas service companies of continued support to sustain the impressive growth in local content and to boost their production operations.
Saying that he was impressed by what indigenous companies were doing in the country, Ogbe recalled similar visits he had made to other service companies across the country, saying he was impressed with facilities and the competencies acquired in the pursuit of local content development.
Amazed at the assortment of top-grade engineering equipment and industrial machinery parts in the expansive operational base of the company along N.P.A. Expressway, he exclaimed, “Seeing is believing, I’ve come, have seen!” Commenting further, he said, “Am so impressed with your facilities.”
He congratulated the company on its 34 years of active engagement in engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance (EPCOM) services with major oil and gas industry players, noting that the company had successfully undertaken over 350 major projects in the industry and with an excellent record of “zero incident, zero downtime” in its decades of operations.
“I will collaborate with your company and ensure that jobs you can do will come here. We are here as enablers to business and I will work with any company that can increase production in the country,” while also expressing interest in the company’s solar technology, which he said would be required to provide electricity to ICT [Information and Communication Technology] Centres established by the NCDMB in several secondary schools across the Niger Delta and other parts of the country.