Nigerian investors that wish to buy new marine
vessels will be required to submit their Nigerian Content plan to the Nigerian
Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), with effect from January
2015.
Speaking in Lagos at the weekend during the
load-out ceremony of the Gas Gathering Compression Platform (GGCP) and
Non-Associated Wellhead Platform (NWP) contracted to Hyundai Heavy Industries
(HHI) of Korea by Chevron Nigeria Limited, the Executive Secretary of the
NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa said the measure was part of the steps being taken to
ensure that certain components of marine vessels that will operate in Nigeria
are fabricated within the country.
Nwapa said the submission of the Nigerian
Content plan by the prospective vessel owners would
help the NCDMB to determine
the component of the new vessel that would be fabricated in Nigeria and the
ones to be fabricated in foreign yards.
“If you don’t submit the Nigerian Content plan
and you go and build your new vessel in Korea or India and come back to
Nigeria, it will not work in Nigeria,” he said.
“We said that Nigerians must start to own
vessels but the consultants said where will they get the money. But Nigerians
have shown that they can buy marine vessels because the government has said
that Nigerians should own marine vessels. The banks are backing vessel owners.
Guess what? Nigerians are no longer buying second-hand vessels; they are not
buying five-year old vessels. But they are going to build new vessels in India,
South Africa and China. So, we are moving from one problem to another. Why
can’t vessels be built in Nigeria? From January 2015, if you want to buy marine
vessels that will work in this country, you have to submit a Nigerian Content
plan to the NCDMB,” he explained.
Nwapa said Nigeria’s oil and gas industry could
transfer the capacity it had built to the other sectors of the economy.
“The guys that have been trained to build
platforms and jackets will be building our telecommunication masts; building
our facilities and infrastructure in the power sector. So, when the oil
industry slows down, we will move our troops to the other sector. That is the
whole essence of what we are doing,” he added.
Nwapa said it took the Federal Government 10
years of struggle to ensure local integration of Floating Production Storage
Offshore (FPSO) vessels in Nigeria.
“Every Nigerian in leadership position must
insist that anything that we need to do in Nigeria – we must do a substantial
proportion of it locally, so that our teeming population will have something to
do. It is not just about jobs; we are talking about productive jobs. There was
a time in this country when people were given employment letters and asked to
stay at home. That is killing. We want Nigerians to work,” he added.
He noted that since the Nigerian Content Act
was enacted, the country has recorded an inflow of over $5 billion worth of
investments into the economy.
“If you ask Nigerdock; if you ask LADOL; if you
ask Aveon or Kaztec or GE or every company in Nigeria, the minimum investment
they have put into this country in the past few years is over $100 million.
That is how it is happening in marine vessels and shipping.” He said.
Thisday
No comments:
Post a Comment