By Jide Dominic, Yenagoa
As part of activities of the just concluded Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) 2024 held in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital by the Nigerian Content Monitoring and Development Board (NCDMB), the board has hosted a youth forum with the theme, “Building Youth Capacity, Securing Investments, Sustaining Growth in the Oil and Gas Industry.”
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Eng. Felix Omashola, who was represented by Teddy Bai, Supervisor of Government Relations, expressed the commitment of the board to youth empowerment as a foundation for sustainable sectoral growth.
Eng. Omashola also highlighted the strategic role of youths in attracting investment opportunities, stressing that this can only be realized if the youths, in not only the Niger Delta but also in the entire country, attach importance to registering on the NOGIC-JQS platform.
He equally provided insights into the upcoming training opportunities as a motivation and guidance to help equip and prepare themselves with relevant information that can lead to their active participation in the industry.
The forum also provided a window for interactive session, including questions and answers segment as a veritable platform for adequate engagement with experts in the industry. The event which gained wide spread acceptance underscored NCDMB’s ongoing drive aimed at equipping young Nigerians with relevant skills and opportunities required in the oil and gas industry.
Earlier, NCDMB had signed a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bank of Industry (BOI) on the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF) equity scheme, a calculated step taken to strengthen industry financing and accelerate sustainable local growth.
The Managing Director of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, reaffirmed BOI’s commitment to empowering indigenous companies through the $100m NCIF equity investment fund to provide equity and quasi-equity capital, deepen access to long term risk financing, scale up local trading, competitiveness, job creation and technology transfer.
According to him, a single fund of $5m is also available and it is expected to lead to high impact investment backed up by strong monitoring and diligence, stressing that the partnership with NCDMB’S 10- year roadmap and Nigeria’s industry development agenda under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda which will reinforce the shared mission to build resilience and a globally competitive Nigerian enterprises.
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