By SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY—Out going Managing Director of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr Abiye Membere, yesterday, reiterated the desire of the corporation to implement 100 per cent Nigerian Content Act in the award of contract.

Membere, currently the new Group Executive Director; Exploration and Production of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, spoke at a  summit organised for its contractors. He  blamed some contractors of the company for failing to conduct proper feasibility studies before submitting proposals, saying that the situation had led to delays in contract execution, as they often come for upward review of the contracts.

The event was co-sponsored by the United Bank for Africa, UBA; Access Bank and Diamond Bank. He said: “The NPDC doesn’t have a choice than to follow the Nigerian Content Act. We want to ensure strict compliance with the Nigerian Content Act. We deal with 95 per cent indigenous contractors.

“We have challenges with contractors changing the contract value after contract award. You have gone through all the processes and after contracts had been awarded and signed, the contractor will come, I can’t do this job anymore, prices have gone up by 60 per cent.

“I didn’t know this or that, which are difficult within our system to go through again when contracts had been awarded. We also recognise the fact that the Nigerian banking sector’s interest rate is very high, it is so high we are really worried about our contractors, one is to award the contract, the other is to execute them.”