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The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has charged media stakeholders on effective reportage of activities and initiatives 0f the Board, saying the Media is an integral partner of the Board.
Executive Secretary of the Board, Engr. Felix Omatsola-Ogbe gave the charge in his opening remarks at the 2024 Capacity Building Workshop for Media Stakeholders organized by the Board during the week for Bayelsa and Rivers States practicing Journalists in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
The Workshop which was tagged, “Role of Media and Communication in Sustaining the Tempo of Nigerian Content Development,” focuses on enhancing the capacity of media professionals to effectively report and promote Nigerian content initiatives.
Ogbe who was represented by the General Manager, Corporate Communications and zonal Coordination of the NCDMB, Barr. Esueme Dan-Kikile, emphasized the crucial role of the media in driving awareness, advocacy, and public understanding of policies and programmes aimed at fostering local content development in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
He averred that the workshop aligns with the Board’s commitment to leveraging communication and media partnerships to sustain progress in Nigerian content implementation and ensure active stakeholder engagement.
The Executive Secretary who commended the Media for their collaborative efforts with the Board, also revealed tha the current management of the NCDMB tends to partner stakeholders in the education sector to deploy better and more qualified teachers to rural communities through a new initiative of the Board tagged, “Back to the Creek”.
He said: “This is about the 14th year since the establishment of the NCDMB, and the media has been a very integral partner to the Board. And so this yearly workshop is being organized to train and retrain media practitioners across the country because of the important role the media has continued to play in their collaboration with the Board.
“Under the present management of the NCDMB, we’ve an initiative called ‘ Back to the Creeks’ in which the Board in partnership with stakeholders in the education sector tends to provide some support in terms of educational facilities and infrastructure in the rural communities to attract qualified teachers to those places so that children and students in the rural areas could acquire good education and become better citizens of the nation too”.
In a presentation entitled “Implementing Nigerian Content New Contracting Guidelines in line with the Presidential Directives on Local Content”, Senior Supervisor, Projects Certification and Authorization Division of the NCDMB, Engr. Bashir Ahmed said the Board was created by its enabling law due to the need for value retention in the oil and gas industry and associated ones.
He noted that with deliberate commitment of the Board in job creation and ensuring competency, while also fast tracking in investments in the oil and gas sector, the NCDMB which had previously secured a distance 27th position in the Presidential Ease of Doing Business(PEDBE) index in 2019 has now moved upwards to first position between 2022-date, saying the Board has reduced its touch steps from nine to five following consultation with stakeholders in both the NNPC, OPTS and others.
Giving an overview of the Nigerian Content Measurement Metrics, Ms Tassalla Tersurg, General Manager, Midstream Monitoring and Evaluation of the NCDMB stated that there were three approaches to monitoring and evaluation in the Board, noting that they include performance, compliance and intervention monitoring.
In similar vein, Management of the NCDMB has said key elements of sustaining Nigerian Content Development includes, Policy Implementation and Enforcement, Capacity Building, Promoting Local Manufacturing, Funding and Financial Support, Innovation and Technology Adoption and Stakeholders engagement, including making the best use of Media and Communication stakeholders, amongst others.
National Wire reports that highpoints of the event were panel discussions, moderated by the Manager, Corporate Communications of the Board, Dr. Obinna Ezeobi with the themes “Sustaining the Tempo of Nigerian Content Development” and
“Relevance in the Face of Changing Dynamics: How Can Media Practitioners Reinvent Themselves?”
