By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
The Minister for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe kachukwu, has revealed plans to launch Project 100 for Nigeria’s oil and gas entrepreneurs.
The presentation was made by Engr. Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, NCDMB, on behalf of the The Minister for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe kachukwu at the 7th Practical Nigerian Content 2017 with the theme “Nigerian Content The Next Frontier.”
The minister said the essence of the Project 100 is to identify 100 businesses that have gained traction in the oil and gas industry. He adds: “In the last couple of years, we have put in place frameworks that are beginning to deliver the type of outcomes we desire in our industry. The new oil and gas policies approved by the Federal Executive Council to sort out the cash call problems in the upstream sector and to putting in place the mechanism to address supply hookups in the downstream sectors. We have managed to stabilize our business environment.”
According to him, the big deep shore problem is falling into place as there are signs of investment finding their ways back into Nigerian shores. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources and his agencies are poised to facilitate and unlock ups-tackles stooping these initiatives from proportion and practicalize those wonderful propositions from Nigerians that have been held down by bottleneck or the other.
“The time is right for us all to put into practice all the wonderful ideas initiatives and frameworks put in place to unleash the full potentials in our industry. This is meant to be a practical demonstration of the Nigerian Content in Action with the goal of scattering any glass ceiling preventing our local oil and gas entrepreneurs from coming in into prominence and execute activities in the scale that they have never done before,” The minister added.
The minister said the time has come to practice all those beautiful ideas about LPG penetration, local refining, infrastructures for security of supply, and built-in predominant technology and
automatons, field development and several others. He said: “i believe by the time we have done the Project 100, Nigerian Content Index would have moved up and creates businesses with enhanced capabilities and capacities.
The minister also commented that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is proud of Nigerian Content achievements and it have stimulated other sectors like information and communication, automobile, construction and power to adopt some of the templates in their operations.
Speaking further, the minister said some African countries like Kenya, Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda as well as Gabon and Angola have come to Nigeria in the past for mentor-ship on local content initiatives.
“I urge you all not to drop the ball. On our part, let me reassure you on the commitments to promoting a robust private sector participation in our business and ensuring ‘Ease of Doing Business’ as we will continue to enforce the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act to increase in-country value addition and support the job creation initiatives of this administration.
“We are about launching the ‘Project 100″ as we have finalized the concept training and our target is by the end of this year, we will launch the program,” The minister said
