$200m Local Content Fund: NCDMB engages financial crime agencies against abuse

By Ayobami Adedinni

Simbi Wabote, the executive secretary of the Nigerian content development monitoring board (NCDMB), has said that the board would take measures to ensure that operators who participate in its $200 million local content fund do not end up abusing the process and subsequently deflating the fund.

Wabote, in his presentation at the 2018 edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG) in Abuja, also said the board has concluded to hand over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), any operator who failed to remit what was due to it as requested by the local content law.

He noted that the board was undertaking a forensic audit of the remittances and had engaged the country’s judicial sector on how the local content law works with regards to such remittances to it.

“We were told by the agencies responsible for financial crimes that not remitting government fund in itself is a financial crime as it is contained in their acts, and as such, when we carry out this forensic audits, if we discover any breach of the processes, of course, we will hand over such to the agencies responsible to go after companies that want to sabotage the economy.

“The EFCC and ICPC will be responsible to go after such people who decides that they will not remit what is due government in terms of law,” he said.