By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber (www.EnergyChamber.org)
Earlier this month, Africa’s energy sector learned of the replacement of Simbi Wabote as Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), who was appointed to the position through President Muhammadu Buhari in September 2016.
Wabote’s abrupt exodus (which has already been explained) has provoked a variety of reactions, highlighting the complexity of his legacy of protecting national participation in the oil and fuel industry.
At the African Energy Chamber (AEC), we were discouraged to be informed of this development. Throughout its years of service, Wabote has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to local content policies that not only provide advantages for Nigerians but also create opportunities for other Africans. It did not use local content as an argument to advertise resource nationalism, but instead encouraged intra-African collaboration and worked with its counterparts in other African countries on its local content initiatives. Nigeria has taken the initiative and shared classes to stay informed.
We greatly respect Wabote’s efforts to promote transparency in local content and contracts, as well as his advocacy for the African oil and fuel industry – he has never hesitated to speak out in favor of a just transition of power.
Wabote can take pride in his achievements with the NCDMB. By encouraging a balanced, market-friendly approach to local content, he fostered a generation of African entrepreneurs.
Promote content
Wabote was no stranger to creating local content under complex conditions when he arrived at NCDMB.
He spent 26 years at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Nigeria Limited, where he rose to the position of Managing Director of Business and Government Relations for Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN). During his tenure at the company, he held internal and out-of-country leadership positions and spent years overseeing the progress of the local content strategy and framework, and served as Managing Director of Local Content for Shell corporations around the world.
As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Wabote was guilty of leading strategic national systems aimed at building capacity and localizing business activities in Nigeria. His global experience has been instrumental in re-engineering the board’s business processes to achieve maximum impact in local content development.
Wabote’s success with the NCDMB included establishing a number of highly impactful funds. With the creation of the USD350 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF,) for example, Wabote and the NCDMB were able to provide affordable credit for Nigerian oil and gas service companies and local contractors.
“This has gone a long way toward addressing the capital challenge that hinders the expansion of many Indigenous service providers,” Wabote wrote in a 2022 op-ed via Premium Times.
Under Wabote’s leadership, the NCDMB also introduced a fund to boost local production of appliances and parts for the oil and fuel industry, a study and progress fund to resolve disruptions in the energy industry, and a current capital fund. for the triumph of the oil and fuel corporations. on the adverse effects of the disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic.
I applaud those efforts, as well as NCDMB’s $40 million Women in Oil and Gas Response Fund, established in partnership with the Export-Import Bank of Nigeria (NEXIM) to take advantage of oil and fuel corporations where women own majority shares or run businesses.
During his tenure on the board, Wabote pushed for greater Indigenous participation in oil and fuel contracts and encouraged investment in local production and capacity building. It has forged strategic collaborations with foreign oil companies, universities, and educational institutions to decorate local capacity building and generation transfer. . And it has implemented projects for the transparency of NCDMB’s operations and to combat corruption in the oil and fuel sector.
Overcoming challenges
Despite Wabote’s NCDMB paintings in favor of political progress, critics argue that actual implementation of local content needs has failed, with gaps and lack of enforcement hampering progress. There are considerations about the unequal distribution of the benefits of local content initiatives, with giant corporations reaping benefits. more than small businesses and local communities.
Wabote has created an environment where the NCDMB cannot pick winners and losers and pit opposing industry sectors against each other to achieve sustainable local content goals. We have seen him drive the construction of Nigeria’s and Africa’s competitiveness. Our oil and fuel industry can no longer face excessive regulation that hurts businesses when it comes to creating jobs and opportunities for ordinary citizens.
The AEC hopes that Wabote’s successor, Felix Ogbe, will continue the efforts toward robust local content development, building upon Wabote’s initiatives while addressing implementation gaps and any other concerns.
We would love to see the board continue to foster inclusivity and empower local communities. And we are anxious to see whether the new leadership will uphold the high standards of transparency and combatting corruption that are essential to maintain public trust and ensure the effectiveness of local content initiatives.
“(President) Tinubu hopes that this organization of highly qualified experts will carry out its tasks with patriotic determination to particularly embellish the participation of local industry in the energy sector,” the president’s press adviser said in a statement about the new board members, adding that Tinubu’s management is mandated to achieve 70% indigenous content in Nigeria’s energy sector industry over the years of the President.
Hopefully, this will become a reality and the NCDMB will continue to build on the foundations supported during his tenure by Wabote.
© Press 2023
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