By Sebastine Obasi

Yearnings by oil and gas industry stakeholders for easy access to the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) will soon be addressed by the new guidelines to be released by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Simbi Wabote confirmed that the Board would come up with a transparent guideline on the application and utilization of the Fund to give comfort to the stakeholders and ensure that the intentions of the Fund are realised.

NCDF was established by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010 for the purpose of increasing Nigerian Content in the Oil and gas Industry by addressing the paucity of funding faced by manufacturers, service providers and other key players.

The Fund is pooled from one per cent of every contract awarded in the upstream sector of the industry and is managed by the Board.

The Board also announced that it will expand its operations to the midstream and downstream sectors of the Oil and Gas industry in line with Section 106 of the Nigerian Content Act.

Meanwhile, NCDMB has also pledged to support efforts to implement local content legislation across other sectors of the economy, including Power, ICT and Construction. Operators of the sectors were challenged to develop and use bespoke regulations to guide the implementation of local content in their industries pending the development of statutes.