.Elias Ali
Adpoint Magazine
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itting at the heartland of the Niger Delta region with their
imposing seventeen storey Head office building, the tallest in the region, the
people of the area would have been wondering what the Nigerian Content
Development & monitoring Board (NCDMB) are doing, or would do, towards
solving the menace of oil spill that has become like an albatross to their
health and general wellbeing.
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| Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu making his presentation |
Roundly capturing their mind, and perhaps, the minds of other
Nigerians who may have visited the area and seen the level of environmental
damage, Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu, the General Manager, Research, Statistics &
Development, NCDMB, provided some insight into the issue. He was speaking on,”
R & D as pathway for deepening Nigerian Content implementation”, at their 3rd
media training workshop at Airport Hotel, Lagos, during the week.
Touching on the Aiteo oil blowout at Nembe, he asked,” how
can we do it differently”? He went on to reveal what NCDMB is doing that could
spring a solution to problem. “We are engaging the youths who can come up with
a disruptive idea. Each person is encouraged to come up with his idea. What we
do is that we incubate them; then harvest the ideas at the end of the year. We assess
all of them and then select the ones to look at further. The selected ones
would be integrated into our project 100 companies. These are identified small
companies (indigenous companies) to support and encourage. Some of the
companies do collaborate among themselves and, in some cases, merge to be able
to do bigger things”
Furthering his presentation, he advised the media to give
more publicity on the value of R & D as the bedrock of innovation. He cited
America as an example of a country whose growth owes to their R&D spend.
“Nigeria is not doing well.” “The government”, he went on,
“has to play its leadership role, through two major mandates, which is to build
capacity, and to enforce the mandate. Covid-19 has opened our eyes that if you
don’t produce what you need then there may be problem for you. We should see
startups as our new way of creating values”
Underscoring further the relevance of R&D, he said “NCDMB
is to galvanize the (oil) industry and to solve the industry challenges. To be
able to do this, the agency has a 10 year R&D roadmap that defines how
NCDMB would go with R&D. Local content is a very important pillar for the
development of our hydrocarbon”
“It is worthy of note”, he informed.“ that only a paltry 5%
of the industry spend was retained in-country before NCDMB was established, but
with the activities of the Board this has risen to 42%”
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| Resources persons from 5th left (in order) Prof. Teilanyo Diri,Mr.Obinna Ezeobi, Barr. Naboth Onyesoh, Mr. Steve Ayorinde,and Barr. Kikile Dan-Esueme (in white native dress),with some attendees at the Workshop. |
Barr. Kikile Dan-Esueme, a General Manager in the directorate
of Monitoring and Evaluation, representing the Director, Mr. Akintunde Adelana,
spoke on, “Eleven Years of Monitoring and Evaluating Nigerian Content
Implementation: Lessons Learnt So Far” He also reiterated that laudable milestone
of raising the retention of in-country spend in the oil industry from 5% before
the inception of the agency in 2010 to an enviable level of 42% currently. “Another
testimony of the stride the agency is making” he said, “is the drastic
reduction in the number of expatriate personnel involved in the Nigerian oil
industry.” This fact was observed by
someone at one of the Nigerian Practical Content, a yearly forum for
stakeholders in the industry, which we were in attendance, “before now, at this
sort of forum, it is dominated by expatriates with just a few Nigerians but now
the reverse is the case”. And truly, you can count the very few expatriates at
the event. 95% of the presentations were made by Nigerians.
“The media” he further said, “should own the NCDMB philosophy”;
adding that “there is need to collaborate with the media with impact messaging”
There were other resource persons at the event.
Mr. Steve Ayorinde, former editor of Punch Newspapers, and
former commissioner of Information and Strategy, then on to Commissioner,
Tourism, Arts &Culture, Lagos State, made the presentation on “Positioning
for a top career in the media and communication industry”.
He pointed out the opportunities present in the media, which
includes “publishing, digital media, self-owned PR and advertising, media
relation and consultancy, and public sector”.
An interesting insight on why people die young in Lagos was
also shared by him. “Lagos State has the smallest land mass in Nigeria, yet 20%
of the population is housed in Lagos, also 35% of vehicular activities is in
Lagos. As long as other states do not create their own mini Lagos, the
condition would continue. “Things” he concluded, “have to be done differently”
Mr. Obinna Ezeobi, the Chief Supervisor, Corporate
Communications, at the commencement of
the programme, had handled, ably, his role in the “Ice Breaker Moments” He asked participants questions on some oil
industry acronyms and jargon to get
everyone into a cheerful mood and, to be attentive and focused on the
presentations to follow.
“Improving Competencies to Meet Evolving Media Trends” was
handled by Prof. Teilanyo Diri, of the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Federal university of Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
In the presentation, he went through the traditional media
and the new media, highlighting what is involved and what journalists should
do, and insight into contemporary issues like fake news.
Naboth Onyesoh, Manager, Corporate Communication, took the
recap of the presentations to bring the Workshop to a close.
With these series of training workshops, NCDMB, once more,
demonstrated transparency, as a media friendly organization. Journalists were
even being encouraged to “engage in investigative journalism with regard to the
affairs of the agency”. The act "speaks to" their corporate lifestyle, which is
worthy of emulation by other agencies.