ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) says it is willing to partner with more universities and other research institutions towards the development of the nation’s hydrocarbon industry.
The Director of Research, Planning and Statistics, NCDMB, Patrick Daziba Obah, made this known at a workshop organised for media stakeholders in the South-South region in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State.
Obah, who presented a paper tagged, ‘R&D As Pathway for Deepening Nigerian Content Implementation’, noted that no oil-producing country could maximise its energy potential without research and planning.
He said that following the importance the board attached to the development of the oil and gas sector, the board had set aside $50,000,000 for research and development in the industry.
He expressed worry that though the research fund was depleting due to the figures already deployed for research in various institutions, the NCDMB was confident that the harvest obtainable from the deployment of the funds was enormous.
Obah said: “The NCDMB has set up research centres through partnership with various universities in Nigeria in partnership with some of the IOCs. We’ve partnered with the Federal Universities of Technology Owerri, FUTO, Akure and Minna.
“We have other centres of excellence in the University of Port Harcourt, the Niger Delta University and we hope to add more to our list of partnerships. We need more partnership with other organisations in terms of increasing the depleting research funds.”
Earlier in his remarks, General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordinator, NCDMB, Dr Ginah Ginah, scored the board high on its achievements, saying that the rationale behind the setting up of the content board was being achieved gradually.
He noted that there were various oil and gas infrastructure under execution in different parts of the country, some inaugurated and others at various phases of completion were a direct result of the board’s willingness to change the narrative of the oil and gas sector for the better.
He commended the media for its roles and partnership with the board towards the development of the oil and gas industry.
Highpoints of the programme were presentations by two academics of the University of Port Harcourt, Professors Aniefiok Udoudo of the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies and Chijioke Nwaozuzu of the university’s Emerald Energy Institute, which were tagged, ‘Retooling Competencies for the Changing Media Landscape’ and Dissecting the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), respectively.
In a recap of the presentations at the event, the Manager, Corporate Communications of the NCDMB, Mr Naboth Onyesoh, commended the lead presenters and other participants for making the event meaningful.
He added that the importance of the media to ensuring a stronger and virile content board could not be over emphasized, noting that the board was headed towards better partnership with the media and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector.