The Senate Committee on Local Content has uncovered a $400 million intervention fund domiciled in some financial institutions for years by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
The committee, led by its Chairperson and the lawmaker representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, made the discovery during her interactive session with the management of NCDMB on Wednesday.
In a statement on Thursday by her spokesman, Arogbonlo Israel, Apoti-Uduaghan said out of the intervention funds uncovered, $50 million was budgeted for capacity building in oil and Gas ($30 million) and women in oil and gas businesses ($20 million), respectively.
She said another $50 million of Local content development fund available for Research and Development in oil and gas industries was also domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
These funds, according to her, will attract oil and gas equipment manufacturers to NOGaPS facilities, as well as increase access to affordable finance by the manufacturing entities, adding that the board should explain to Nigerians who are not aware of the availability of the fund how they can access it.
The Local Content Chairman specifically lamented that Chevron, apart from crude oil exploration in Saudi Arabia, also manufactures Polypropylene (one of the waste products from Gas) to produce Syringe, which fetches Saudi Arabia $ 6 billion annually.
She further blamed the collapse of the Jubilee Syringe Plant in Bayelsa on the lacuna in the operational model of the International Oil companies.
As part of its oversight functions, the committee mandated the management to submit the audited account of NCDMB from 2021 to 2022, the budgetary performances of 2022 and 2023, and the nominal roll of the board.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr Felix Ogbo, revealed that 300 million dollars meant for the Nigeria Content Intervention Fund is still domiciled in the Bank of Industry.
According to the board, the entire 300 million dollars has been disbursed. The board added that the total amount disbursed so far amounts to 330 million dollars, explaining that as beneficiaries pay, the money would be given to others who want to borrow.
The management added that five out of the seventy companies that accessed the fund have fully repaid the loan, which has been efficient and successful.
The management disclosed that the only challenge was during COVID-19 when there was a global economic shutdown, and the board interacted with the BoI managing the fund to give the companies a palliative two-year moratorium to enable companies to recover from the effect of the pandemic.
“Bank of Industry carries out quarterly monitoring to ensure the companies use the loan for the purpose it was meant for. We also carry out joint annual project monitoring with the Bank of Industry,” Ogbo said.
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