By Oscarline Onwuemenyi
ABUJA – The Nigerian Content Development Fund which was signed into recently into law by President Goodluck Jonathan would boost the Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government, the Acting Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Monitoring Board, Engr Ernest Nwapa said on Thursday.

Nwapa, who stated this after inspecting the pipe threading yard of Botro Marine & Oil Services in Onne, Rivers State, explained that there was a correlation between the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act and the post amnesty programme as both are designed primarily to give jobs to more Nigerians, particularly in the oil and gas industry
He said, “There is a correlation between the provisions of the Nigerian Content and the post amnesty programme of government because the policy is designed to bring the militants out of their state of minds and integrate them into society.
“But if you continue speaking grammar, without giving them a place to work, then you have issues. So the law is working in tandem with that programme of government of government.”

Nwapa described the pipe threading yard of Botro Marine & Oil Services as an example of how the Nigerian Content could complement the Amnesty Programme as the yard employs about 50 persons with the capacity to take more.

He said, “You can see that this facility is employing 50 persons at once without even getting the benefit of jobs. When it gets jobs, they will have 50 to 100 staff. They will have contractors, suppliers and people will do all kinds of jobs.

“This is a model that applies to threading of pipes, it also applies to shipping, fabrication, engineering and insurance companies. Am sure with this equipment here, some insurance companies would have to market their products. This is a clear depiction of how the whole thing works.”

On the capacity of the Federal Government to implement the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act, Nwapa said the obligation was not on an individual, but the system.
He however, explained that the law had been tested for five years and the managers of the Nigerian Content Monitoring Board understood its implementation and would not give room for non-compliance.
He said, “Today we are in direct link with everybody and everything happening in the oil and gas industry, this board is empowered to look at it and it has got the bite.

“If my own bite as an individual is not strong enough, there is a bite from the chairman of the council who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke. Her authority has additional bite and then the council itself is another increased level of bite.

“But the most important bite is that of the investor who has spent millions of dollars, who may have borrowed money or sold his property to invest.

Would he allow a government official or a paid employee to scuttle his investment?”
Nwapa however, explained that one of the greatest challenges facing the implementation of the act was the lack of awareness of capabilities within Nigeria.

He said, “We are building vessels, marine vessel, pipes are being threaded and coated, safety equipment manufacture, all kinds of services that are being offered anywhere in the world are happening here.

You cannot have investments if you do not demonstrate to investors that if they invest, their facilities will be used.”
In his comments, the Managing Director, Botro Marine & Oil Services Ltd, Mr. Oluwole Odunayo, explained that his yard would be worth about N20m after completion.

He said the company started at the instance of the Nigerian Content Development after the importation of finished pipes was banned.
He sad, “We were in so many tenders and we were being knocked off so the only option for us was to move forward and that is by setting up a threading plant.

“Without that, there was no way you will be pre-qualified for the technical stage or commercial as we were being seen as a mere contractor just involved in buying and selling.”

He further explained that the company entered into an alliance with a partner in Switzerland and they found that there are potential in Nigeria.

Odunayo commended President Jonathan for signing Nigerian Content Act into law, adding that the challenge was now that of the service providers to insist that they be given jobs by the oil companies.
He added, “If I see something that is wrong, I can write petition to any level because I have every right as a Nigerian because of the level of my investment.

I can also talk at any level because I have the confidence that what we are doing is of the highest quality.
“We studied the market and we realised that in the next three to four years, there will be lots of tenders, not just from the international oil companies.

There was a projection that formed the basis of our investment and when we looked at 2007, we found about 10 million feet of different sizes of pipes, based in the different adverts that came out in the newspapers.
Within a year, it had jumped to 20 million feet of different sizes of pipes. Even if we can get 10 per cent of it, it is a lot.”