Investigate Our Activities, NCDMB Tells Journalists

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has called on the media to investigate its activities since its inception and tell the public its achievements and failings so far.
This call came as the board disclosed that it had successfully handled 545 local content policy issues since the inception of the board, saying that by 2027, it would have achieved up to 70 percent local content in the country.
Speaking on behalf of the board during a capacity building workshop organized for media stakeholders from the South South on Tuesday in Port Harcourt Rivers State, Esueme Dan Kikile, Manager, Corporate Communications of the board urged the media to do a lot of investigations on the board adding that such reports could earn them awards.
With this year’s theme, “The Role of the Media in Sustaining Nigerian Content Legacies,” Kikile advised the media to also come up with that will help the board to do better.
He said, “We are speaking today on sustaining local content. We know that in the last 13 years, the Nigerian content has moved from five percent to 54 percent. We also know that in the last few days we have had a transition in NCDMB.
“We have moved from the Simbi Wabote era to now the era of the new Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Ogbe. Because we had the transition, it is important that as media, we put to the front burner what local content has become in the Nigerian economy. As the key drivers of information, education and entertainment, the media should continue to bring the issue of local content as a thematic area of discussion.
“We use this engagement to learn, re-learn and unlearn. This workshop is important as media frontiers especially in this advent of Artificial Intelligence and new tools of media reporting, we will also continue to learn what we have learnt and relearn continuously so that we are not left behind.
“We have a leadership that is deepened in the Oil and Gas Industry. The new Executive Secretary as a man deeply grounded in oil and gas industry matters he has the capacity to take the Nigerian Content from 54 percent hopefully to 70 percent which is our target by the year 2027.
“His mandate from Mr President is to move the Nigeria Content from 54 percent to 70 percent and for us a team, we will give him all the support that is required to achieve that.
He stated that the media is a very powerful tool that can be used to showcase the Nigerian Content.
He said, “When local content said that they are 54 percent, I expect the media to interrogate that. How did you arrive at that, what were the metrics you used to determine your 54 percent Nigerian Content performance and by the way, what is Nigerian Content performance? It means that in every 100 dollars that is spent in the oil and gas industry, 54 dollars is spent n Nigeria.
“Prior to now, it was less than five dollars to every 95 dollars that being spent outside. Now we have tried to plough back up to 54 percent. Our expectation is that by 2027 when we will be closing our ten years strategic road map, we will be spending 70 percent in the country and that 70 percent will go to employing Nigerian services that are produced in Nigeria manufacturing activities and formulation activities in country.
“For us, we require that the media interrogate us, we should not just report that NCDMB has moved local content to 54 percent. How did it arrive at that? And some of these stories, if you begin to do them you can be an award winning journalist because you will deepen the conversation. You will come with facts and figures.
“At the end of the day, we want to see more investigative reports on Nigerian Contents. We are open transparent and accountable,” he said.
One of the facilitators at the workshop, Austin Tam-George speaking on the topic, ‘Fundamentals of Media Strategy and Corporate Storytelling,’ added that the media is one of the most important key instruments for development.
He said that it is the media that will able to question what NCDMB is doing, adding that this kind of strategic partnership that the board is building with the media is basically to build structures on public accountability.
“Through the synergy that NCDMB is building with the media, the general pubic and the stakeholders in the oil and gas sector will know what is gong on. The media will ask questions concerning the performance of NCDMB.
“And they will also use this opportunity to generate ideas on how the board can be more transparent and open, establish a feedback mechanism between the board and the larger public.