By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) would partner the Government of Edo State in the development of the Benin Enterprise Park (BEP), Executive Secretary of agency, Mr Simbi Wabote, has assured the state Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki.
Speaking last Thursday when Mr Obaseki led a delegation to the board’s Abuja liaison office, Mr Wabote said NCDMB will throw its full weight behind any initiative aimed at improving the nation’s economy and wooing more investors to the oil and gas sector of the economy.
The enterprise part is expected to benefit from a dedicated gas pipeline with direct interconnection to natural gas trunk line and a direct gas sales agreement with reliable gas suppliers.
The part is sponsored by the Edo State government and Amaya Capital, a principal Energy investment firm, as a private-sector led industrial park.
BEP aims to provide efficient and competitive infrastructure to international and local companies. The project will be developed in phases over a 900 hectare location along the Benin-Sapele highway and would have a designated area for oil and gas service companies.
According to the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, the agency has made budgetary provision for the Edo Oil and Gas and Park in the 2018 budget, particularly for land acquisition.
He said the board would also be willing to partner the Edo government to catalyse other sectors of the economy provided there would be return on such investments.
“There is a lot we can do in the gas corridor in Edo. We have to diversify from crude oil in order to change the thinking in the Niger Delta,” Mr Wabote said. Speaking during the visit, the Edo Governor explained that the Benin Enterprise Park would take advantage of “significant gas reserves within the state, being on the route of the core Escravos to Lagos gas trunk line with capacity of approximately two billion cubic feet of gas per day.”
