NCDMB picks 18 local firms to make oil and gas equipment
- The NCDMB says 18 Nigerian companies out of about 60 assessed can manufacture critical oil and gas equipment locally.
- The board met stakeholders in Port Harcourt to plan how to act on a 2023 study on local production of parts.
- Officials say the push aims to keep more oil industry spending inside Nigeria and hit 70 per cent local content by 2027.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has cleared 18 indigenous companies to manufacture critical oil and gas equipment locally, after assessing about 60 firms.
The board announced the screening at a stakeholders' meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday. The meeting looked at how to carry out the recommendations of an industry study on making key oil and gas components inside Nigeria.
The parts in focus include pumps, valves, flanges, gaskets, bolts and nuts, metering solutions and instrument fittings. The NCDMB commissioned the study on 7 July 2022, and the team handed in its report on 12 July 2023.
According to a statement by the board's General Manager, Corporate Communications, Obinna Ezeobi, the assessment also found problems holding back local manufacturers from growing and expanding.
Why it matters
The board says these components are vital to keeping oil and gas production running, and they take a large share of what companies spend to operate and build projects. Making them in Nigeria could mean more factory work, more skilled jobs and more of the industry's money staying at home instead of going abroad.
Olugbenga Sheba, General Manager, Institutional Development, Capacity Building Directorate, represented the NCDMB Executive Secretary, Felix Ogbe, at the meeting. He said the plan is to deepen local capacity, promote industrialisation and keep more value within the country's oil and gas industry.
He pointed to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010, which requires that Nigerian goods and services get first consideration, as the legal backing for the push.
Today's rollout is not an isolated initiative; it is an integral pillar of our NCDMB 10-Year Strategic Roadmap, which targets achieving 70 per cent Nigerian content by 2027,
Sheba said.
The board listed the areas it will focus on: expanding infrastructure, structured training, better access to capital, partnerships, and stronger monitoring and enforcement.
Nander Salmwang, Assistant Manager, Institutional Strengthening, Capacity Building Directorate, spoke on the challenges limiting local manufacturing capacity. Emmanuel Yusuf, Manager of the Nigerian Content Development Fund, set out funding opportunities under the fund that could help indigenous firms and community contractors grow.
What happens next
Sheba asked manufacturers, oil and gas operators, service companies and financial institutions to work together to put the study's recommendations into practice. The board says cooperation among industry players will decide whether the plan delivers lasting results.
