NCDMB targets $1bn intervention fund in three years

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) said in Lagos yesterday that it expects the Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) fund to hit $1 billion in the next three years 

Speaking at NCDMB’s research and development forum in Lagos, the board’s executive secretary, Simbi Wabote, said with the launch of $200 million intervention fund with the support of Bank of Industry, the bank was charged to attract more fund to make the NCI fund more than $1bn in the next three years.

Wabote said the $200 million fund has all the attractions to encourage the growth of industry. “The loan will be given to local vendors, service providers at a fixed  rate of 8 per cent interest and for five years tenor. It has $10 million available to single obligor at a particular point in time. You can imagine the change this will bring into the industry if you give loans to service providers at that rate for five years,” he said

Senate President Bukola Saraki, represented by Senator Omotayo Alasoadura, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), said  the Senate is poised to pass into law the outstanding three Petroleum Industry Administration Bill; the Petroleum Industry Fiscal bill  and Petroleum Host Community Bill, all of which have gone through second reading. 

“We hope to pass them into law before the last quarter of the year,” he said.  

The Petroleum Industry bill establishes a clear rules and regulatory framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and stipulates guidelines for operations in the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-sector. 

With the high expectations of the PIB and the controversies that have surrounded it  for over a decade, the National Assembly, according to him,  needed to break it into four parts in order to ease its passage into law. 

“As of today, we have successfully passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) into law,” he said