NCDMB holds Community Content Guideline Workshop in Bayelsa to boost host community participation

By Oke Peter 

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), in conjunction with Boss Engineering Nigeria Limited, an indigenous oil service company, on Wednesday held the latest of the Board’s Sensitization and Enlightenment Workshop on Community Content Guideline (CCG) at Imiringi in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The NCDMB Community Content Guideline is a framework designed by the Board, pursuant to provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, stipulating meaningful integration of host communities into the oil and gas industry value chain. It sets out what operating companies are required to do in regard to jobs, training, contract opportunities, engagement of local vendors for services, capacity building, and provision of critical facilities to boost development in host communities.

In a welcome address, the General Manager, Zonal Coordination, of the NCDMB, Mr. Ifeanyi Ukoha, expressed appreciation for the huge turnout of participants for the event, while stating the desire of the Board to have oil- and gas-producing communities sufficiently informed of what the Board and the industry have accepted as Guideline to govern interactions and relations between operators and contractors and their respective hosts.

He highlighted some key areas of the CCG to be focused upon in the workshop, and sought to underscore the significance of the sensitisation and enlightenment exercise by asking participants to indicate who amongst them had registered on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content (NOGIC) Joint Qualification System (JQS). None had registered. Funding schemes of the Board, including community contractor financing, were unknown.

The Zonal Coordination boss urged participants to be attentive and seek clarification in the course of presentations so as to become adequately enlightened and engaged in the numerous opportunities that the Guideline has made possible for host communities.

A keynote address by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, was presented by his Special Adviser on Local Content, Hon Andrew Esau. He commended NCDMB for undertaking to mount such a workshop to raise awareness among the people on how they could actively participate in the oil and gas value chain and thus attain economic empowerment.

The Governor noted that the opportunities for host communities, as set out in the Community Content Guideline, were numerous in terms of employment, training, capacity building, contracts, funding for community contractors, and a host of others. He urged the NCDMB to make such sensitisation exercises regular across oil- and gas-producing communities to enable upcoming entrepreneurs to grasp the intricacies in establishing small businesses and getting properly registered on the NOGIC JQS.

“Bayelsa State Government is very of you and is prepared to collaborate with you” to expand opportunities for development, he declared, noting that it would be necessary to generate statistics for proper planning in capacity building and related programmes of the Board.