The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has inaugurated an inter-agency committee on local content development. This was part of the drive for the growth and development of the maritime industry
Inaugurating the committee, Peterside said that the vision of the Nigerian local content is to transform the maritime and oil and gas industry by developing in-country capacity and indigenous capabilities of high international standards resulting in significant employment and wealth creation.
He said that with the passage of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010, NIMASA and NCDMB, joined by the S.105 of the Act, they would enforce compliance as two Government Agencies charged with the responsibility of building capacity and regulating local capacity utilization in two critical interlinked segments of the Nigerian economy.
Dr. Peterside who was represented by the Executive Director, Finance and Administration of NIMASA Bashir Jamoh said “he significance of the Oil and Gas Industry to the Nigerian economy cannot be over-emphasized. The need for more collaboration is to forge a common front with a view to enforcing the Local Content Obligations. The bedrock of our collaboration with NCDMB is therefore to close all gaps and loopholes that may be exploited to weaken the efforts of government by operators.
“We believe that with the inter-agency collaboration we will put the local capacity in place to achieve the desired level of value retention especially in the wake of anticipated investment opportunities.”
The Director Geberal asked members of the committee to make every sacrifice that will guarantee the success of the collaboration, which is for the benefit of the nation.
The Committee which is made up of members from NIMASA and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), is expected to develop appropriate framework in areas such as collaboration on promotion of investment in vessel construction, repairs and maintenance capability, proliferation of expatriate crew on vessels working in Nigeria and maritime training, sea-time and certification for Nigerians amongst others. [myad]
