The Nigerian oil and gas industry survived the period of COVID-19, because of the huge local human and infrastructural capacities the board developed since the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010.
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB, Engr Simbi Wabote, disclosed this in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Wednesday during the 7th award and prize giving ceremony of the NCDMB annual national undergraduate essay competition.
Speaking on the theme: ‘Nigerian Content And The Lessons From COVID-19 Pandemic’, Engr Wabote added that local human and infrastructures developed by the board has ensured steady production without interruption, even when all the expatriates had left the country.
Represented by the Manager, Corporate Communication department of NCDMB, Mr. Esueme Dan-Kikile, Wabote said the board has sustained the sponsorship of the essay contest for 7 years because of the huge importance it attach to education and the intellectual development of youths in our society.
While commending the consultant firm of the competition, Mahogany Century Concepts Limited, he said the board’s sponsorship of the competition is in line with its mandate which is capacity-building and local content development.
He said, the board is using the competition to inculcate Local Content consciousness among students in the higher institutions, thereby creating champions of Local Content among our young men and women in the higher institutions of learning.
He said: “This is another well-conceived topic considering how the COVID-19 pandemic devastated our world, to the extent that we have not yet recovered fully, even after three years of those terrible experiences.
“More than anything, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of local content as an existential necessity for every nation, particularly for developing nations like Nigeria.
“At the height of the pandemic, the movement of persons and goods was disrupted for several months, forcing every nation to rely on their local resources for survival.
“The Nigerian oil and gas industry survived that period because of the huge local human and infrastructural capacities we had developed since the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010.
“That ensured that Nigeria’s oil production continued without interruption, even when all the expatriates had left the country.
“I sincerely hope that our policymakers at different levels of government and in the private sector learnt important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and have taken deliberate steps to develop resilient and sufficient human and infrastructural capacities in key sectors of our national fabric, which can withstand any similar external shocks in future.” He said.
Also speaking, consultant for the essay contest and CEO of Mahogany 21st Century Concepts Limited, Mr. Eyinimi Omorozi, said that over fifty thousand Nigerian students in both public and private Institutions across the country entered for the competition to test their intellectual capacity, adding the competition is meant to promote academic excellent in the Nigerian institutions of learning.
An 18-year-old 200 level student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Miss Favour Iruoma Lazarus, emerged winner of the NCDMB annual national undergraduate essay competition.
Iruoma went home with the cash prize of one million and a laptop, while first and second runners up also claimed cash prize and laptops.