NCDMB: Taking Local Contents Drive To Students

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is an agency of the federal government established by an Act that was signed into law in 2012 by the then president of the Federal Republic, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, with the responsibility of supervising, coordinating, administering and monitoring the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in different parts of the federation and ensuring that the oil and gas industry develops greater part of its contents in-country. One of the major reasons why the federal government is aggressively promoting local content in the oil and gas industry is to reduce capital flight resulting from over dependence on foreign manpower in the industry.
The board has the responsibility of assisting local contractors and Nigerian companies to develop capabilities and capacities to further the attainment of the goal of developing Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry. It also conducts studies, researches and investigations that may further the attainment of the goal of developing Nigerian content in the oil and gas sector.
The NCDMB has identified education as a very critical and veritable tool for the actualization of the above subject matter. The board believes that Nigerians can only participate effectively in the oil and gas industry when they are well grounded academically in relevant fields of study. In Bayelsa state where the headquarters of the board is located, NCDMB is organizing an annual teachers’ training programme. The training exercise, which had its maiden edition in 2018 and replicated same last year, has trained a total of 500 secondary school teachers across the eight local government areas of the state between 2018 and 2019. The programme, according to the board, is to equip the teachers with requisite modern teaching techniques so as to be able to impact their students positively.
In the same vein but in a broader spectrum, the Nigerian content development and monitoring board is igniting the spirit of academic competitiveness in all Nigerian students. This, the board is effectively doing through what it termed as the NCDMB Annual Undergraduate Nigerian Content Essay Competition. For the past consecutive three years running, the board has been organizing a nationwide essay competition for Nigerian undergraduates in topics related to the activities of the oil and gas industry. All one Hundred level and two hundred level students of federal, state and private universities as well as polytechnics across the country are qualified to participate in the annual essay writing competition.
The 2019 edition of the all important competition, which started in 2017, was held recently in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital with the topic: Nigeria’s Local Content Policy and its Impact on Sustainable Economic Value Creation. This time, thousands of Nigerian undergraduates enrolled and participated in the NCDMB national academic encounter out of which top eight students were selected as finalists.
They include: 22-year old Delta State born two hundred level student of Rivers State University, Miss. Melex Tamaradoubrah Favour, Benue born and two hundred level student of Benue state university, Master Nater Akpen, 22, Isaac Sunday, 21, a native of Abia state and student of University of Nigeria, Enugu, 19-year old Unanam Melchizedek Fortune of Akwa Ibom state and student of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Miss. Zeenat Magaji, 17, from Sokoto state and second year student of Federal University of Technology, Mina. Other finalists are: Ojo Bayo Elijah, 20, from Ekiti state and student of University of Ibadan, 19-year old Omotoya Ajibola from Oyo state and student of University of Ibadan and Olutola Owolabi from Osun state and student of University of Ibadan.
On the day preceding the grand finale of the event, the top eight were subjected to a painstaking grilling panel where academic experts made up of reputable professors and doctorate degree holders were the competitors were made to convince the panelist that they really wrote the essays themselves. After a rigorous scrutiny of the paper works done by the finalists, Master Isaac Frederick Sunday emerged the overall winner of the 2019 NCDMB essay competition. Born in Aba, Abia state, Sunday, who is a student of the Department of Medical Rehabilitation in the university of Nigeria, Enugu, went home with a star prize of N500,000, a laptop and a plaque. In his response, Sunday, who shed tears of joy, said he would remain grateful to NCDMB for not just the incentives but also inculcating the spirit of academic excellence in Nigerian students. He also commended Mahogany Twenty First Century Concept Limited, consultant and initiator of the essay competition. “I can’t explain how I feel right now. I feel so elated because I never imagined I will come first because it was rigorous. My special appreciation goes to NCDMB because they have exposed us to the opportunities that are abound in the oil and gas industry,” he said.
After the first position, a joint runners-up position went to Miss Tamaradoubrah of Delta and Master Nater Akpen of Akwa Ibom states each of whom went home with N300,000 and a laptop while other member of the top eight received N50,000 each as consolation prizes.
Presenting the prizes to the winners, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote noted that in the capital intensive and highly skilled oil and gas industry and its numerous opportunities, local contractors and Nigerian companies over the past decades never had opportunity to develop their capabilities and capabilities to play significant roles in terms of local content and participation. Represented by head of Corporate Communications, NCDMB, Mr. Neboth Nyesoh, the executive secretary said “it is based on the foregoing that the NCDMB annual national undergraduate Nigerian content essay competition was conceptualized and developed.
“The project is positioned as a strategic tool for promoting the Nigerian oil and gas industry content development Act, 2010 and the NCDMB established mandate to the public especially among the youths who are the real drivers of the Nigerian content. The project is to enhance their understanding and capacity to explore the oil and gas industry. It is also to encourage writing and research ability of young Nigerians in public and privately owned tertiary institutions to enhance academic excellence.” He admonished Nigerian students to shun all forms of antisocial vices and be focused and serious in their academics.
Also speaking, the initiator of the programme and chairman of mahogany twenty first century concept, Mr. Eyinimi Omorozi said number of participants was increasing year by year, pointing out that the first edition of the competition witnessed 300 participants. He said a total of 800 students took part in the second edition while the 2019 edition witnessed 2,300 participants across the country. He emphasized that the increase in number of participants was because the board extended a sense of belonging to private universities as well as polytechnics. “The whole idea is to stimulate the intellectual capacity of our young ones and we believe that this programme has gone a long way in achieving that. For instance, the winner of this competition in 2017 was among the participants at this year’s Nigerian Economic Summit Group and the Nigerian Universities Commission jointly organized essay competition and he came.”