New NCDMB boss assumes office, hires consultants to probe Wabote’s achievement 

… to authenticate 53% implementation of NC 10-year strategic roadmap

Oredola Adeola

Engr. Omatsola Ogbe, the new Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has announced plans to investigate Engr. Simbi Wabote, his predecessor reported 54 percent achievement in the 6th year of implementing the Nigerian Content 10-year strategic roadmap to verify the claim’s validity and assess performance and metrics, following his first day in office.

The new ES announced this on Thursday during his first official meeting with the Directors and some management staff of the Board at the NCDMB’s Abuja liaison office.

The meeting marked Engr. Ogbe’s official assumption of the office as the ES NCDMB, exactly a week after being appointed by President Bola Tinubu to replace Engr. Wabote, who had served for seven and a half years in the office.

According to the statement released by the Board and obtained by EnergyDay, expert consultants would be invited to certify the performance and metrics, to give 54 percent achievement in the 6th year of implementing the Nigerian Content 10-year strategic roadmap more authenticity.

Engr. Wabote, before his sack, during his keynote address at the just concluded 12th Edition of the Practical Nigerian Content Forum, on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, in Bayelsa state claimed that the Board achieved 54 percent of the 10-year Strategic Roadmap, which was launched in 2017. According to him, the roadmap was aimed at increasing Nigerian Content in the oil and gas industry to 70% by the year 2027.

It was rolled out with five (5) pillars and four (4) enablers to drive the focus areas under the roadmap.

WABOTE’S CLAIM

⦁ NCDMB completed 83% of the 96 initiatives under the strategic roadmap with focus now shifting to the remaining initiatives that require some heavy lifting to bring to fruition.

⦁ Under the roadmap, the technical operations data in NOGIC-JQS shows that the number of registered industry operators moved from fifty-three (53) in 2018 to one hundred and fourteen (114) in 2023 representing about a 100% increase. Within the same period, service companies increased from 8,000 to 11,000 while individual registrations increased from 140,000 to almost 400,000.

⦁ Certification of NC Plans increased from 178 in 2022 to 255 in 2023 while the approved NC Compliance Certificates dropped from 197 in 2022 to 168 in 2023.

⦁ A total of 889 EQs were approved in 2022 while 179 EQs were rejected. The expatriate quota approval has been trending down in the last five years.

⦁ In 2023, a total of 1,156 EQs were approved at the end of November compared to 889 approved in 2022. 328 EQs were compared to 179 rejected last year.

⦁ Under the Technical Capability Development pillar of the roadmap, our in-country fabrication capacity moved from 60,000 tons per year to 250,000 tons/year.

⦁ Under the strategic roadmap, we set up a dedicated $ 50 million fund to co-finance industry research and development activities.

⦁ Under the roadmap, we have trained over 7,000 youths in Bayelsa, Kano, Kaduna, Cross River, and Yobe states on GSM hardware repairs and software development.

Meanwhile, at Thursday’s meeting, the new Executive Secretary received a high-level briefing on the Board’s projects and initiatives from the Directors and senior management.

In his remarks, the new NCDMB boss lauded the achievements recorded by the agency, especially the human capacity development programme which had produced Nigerians who now provide high-tech services in other African oil-producing countries.

Engr. Ogbe further charged senior officials of the Board to continue delivering high performance in their various roles, to sustain the Board’s premium position.

EnergyDay gathered through the statement from the Board that the new NCDMB boss’ is kicking off his administration with aggressive sensitization programmes to key stakeholders in cities across Nigeria on the opportunities created by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.

Ogbe also harped on the need for the Board to work closely with its contractors to speed up the delivery of its direct projects such as the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme, to realize their objectives for the economy.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEW ES

The new Executive Secretary hails from Warri South Local Government Area in Delta State and is a vastly experienced oil and gas engineer and holds separate Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering and Construction Management.

He has over 37 years of experience in core oil and gas operations in Nigeria and local content operations, notably onshore and offshore, LNG, Water Drilling, Treatment and Storage Facilities, Civil, Building and dredging Engineering, and other construction.

His experiences were garnered in Nigeria, across Africa, Busan, South Korea, and the USA, where he worked in the Conceptions, Engineering Designs, Project and Construction Management to Commissioning Phases of projects.

His work experiences include Chevron Corporation, where he held top positions in Nigeria and overseas, before he retired voluntarily in June 2014, to go into private business.

While at Chevron Nigeria Limited, he served as Construction Services Group Superintendent (Escravos-Warri) and was responsible for in-house construction services requirements to support the Company Operations.

He equally served as Offshore Projects Manager, where he was responsible for all the Engineering designs, Planning and execution of Maintenance works, and installation of new facilities to support productions in Chevron Nigeria Limited offshore locations.

Other assignments he held in Chevron included Construction Manager (Lagos & Escravos-Warri), Escravos Gas Project (EGP-3B), where he was responsible for the fabrication and installation of various sizes of pipelines/flowlines in offshore and onshore locations in the Niger Delta.

In his early years, he served as Construction Superintendent responsible for Engineering Designs and Construction requirements, and also worked as the Cost Control Engineer and was responsible for all Facility Engineering Division Projects’ cost controls, budgeting, and cashcalls.

Ogbe is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Council of Registered Engineers, and American Institute of Civil Engineers, and is married with children.