By MICHAEL EBOH

The Nigeria Content Development Monitoring, NCDMB, said the country has secured over N128 billion ($800 million) investments from oil and gas equipment manufacturers and their representatives for the next three years.

The NCDMB in its Nigerian Content Implementation Framework for 2013, said since it commenced the Equipment Component Manufacturing Initiative, ECMI, it has issued over 500 certificates to equipment manufacturers and Original Equipment Manufacturers’, OEM representatives who met the technical requirements.

According to the NCDMB, this represents over $800 million investment commitments beyond the next three years.

The report stated that the ECMI was conceived to get representatives of Original Equipment Manufacturers in Nigeria to partner with the OEMs and establish facilities for manufacturing equipment components and parts or assembly of equipment Completely Knocked Down, CKDs in Nigeria.

The NCDMB said, “The business case for ECMI is based on the realisation that local manufacturing of components used by the industry holds the key to unlocking jobs in the industry, spend retention and industrialisation of the economy.

“The ECMI is therefore one key way to re-engineer Nigerian Content growth and create employment opportunities.”

The NCDMB said the initiative is being operated in phases, to ensure that supplies of some vital equipment are allowed only after securing the commitment of suppliers, who have developed credible proposals on how to domicile the manufacturing of certain components of their equipment within the shortest possible time.

The report indicated that the NCDMB had set minimum local content requirement for equipment manufacture in Nigeria at 10 per cent in 2012, and 50 per cent in 2015. This is to ensure that it retained a sizeable proportion of aggregate industry spend on procurement of equipment in the Nigerian economy.

“NCDMB introduced Nigerian Content Equipment Certification, NCEC, which makes equipment component or equipment spare parts manufacture a requirement for participation in tenders.

“The initiative is intended to encourage growth in local manufacturing and assembly for the oil and gas industry and also stimulate improvements in the country’s manufacturing sector,” the report added.

NCDMB further said that it aims to achieve this by encouraging local manufacturers to raise capacity while also encouraging original equipments manufacturers to domicile their manufacturing operations in Nigeria.

The NCDMB further stated that it is also working towards ensuring that at least 60 per cent of marine assets in the country are owned by Nigerians by the year 2015.