The Federal Government is to establish a one hundred million dollars Equity Investment Scheme to provide affordable finance for local players in the oil and gas industry.
Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, Engineer Felix Omatsola-Ogbe stated this at the opening of the fourteenth Practical Nigerian Content Forum at the Content Tower in Yenagoa.
With the theme of the Twenty-twenty five edition of the Forum centered on ‘Securing Investments, Strengthening Local Content and Scaling Energy Production’ stakeholders harped on the need for more investments in the nation’s hydrocarbon industry.
The Executive Secretary of the NCDMB who announced that Nigerian Content levels in projects in the oil and gas sector had increased from 56% to 61% within the last one year, emphasized that Nigerian Content was key to national development and industrialization.
Engineer Felix Omatsola-Ogbe in an opening keynote address said the Equity Investment Scheme which is in partnership with the Bank of Industry is a new product in the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Gas, Dr. Ekperikpe Ekpo who described gas as the backbone of the nation’s future development said there was need for government and key players in the industry to synergize and achieve more local content.
Also, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Oil, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri pointed out that the President Bola Tinubu Administration had put in place a stable legal and regulatory framework that is attracting investments to the nation’s oil and gas industry after over a decade of zero investment, stressing the need for the country to ramp up production.
Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa represented by the Secretary to the State government, Professor Nimibofa Ayawei advocated more support for Nigerian Content and collaboration to build local capacity in the sector.
In goodwill messages, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Oil and Gas, Senator Joel Onowakpo-Thomas and that of the House of Representatives, Boma Goodhead insisted that local content must go beyond slogans to tangible results while the portfolio and country Director, DMG events Nigeria, Wemimo Oyelana said this year’s Forum marked 15 years of the NOGIC Act, reflecting a shared national mission to unlock capital and achieve local participation in the industry.
Highpoint on the opening day was the signing of the NCDMB-BOI Memorandum of Understanding for the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund $100 million Equity Investment Scheme.
