Economy
NCDMB, Dangote Refinery Partner on Local Content Implementation
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has praised the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Free Trade Zone Enterprises (DPRP) over its adherence to the local content law in the execution of its projects and declared its intention to further partner with it for effective implementation of the Local Content policy in the country.
Director, Monitoring & Evaluation of NCDMB, Mr Akintunde Adelana, who represented the board’s Executive Secretary, Mr Simbi Wabote, made this disclosure weekend during the DPRP Nigerian Content Sensitization/Awareness Creation Programme, titled: “Let’s Walk the Nigerian Content Talk Together,” at Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos.
According to him, “the Dangote Refinery project is expected to close a major gap in the supply of petroleum products in the country. We consider this as a very important project and we are willing to partner with the company to ensure full implementation of the local content policy. We embarked on this journey with the company a long time ago and we are ready to partner with the Dangote Group.
“Part of what you see to today is part of our efforts to ensure that the company and its contractors comply with the local content policy and they have put in a lot of efforts in this regard.”
Speaking further, Mr Wabote described the Local Content Act as the quantum of composite value added to, or created in the Nigerian economy by a systematic development of capacity and capabilities, through the deliberate utilization of Nigerian human, material resources and services in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
He said the country recorded loses prior to the enactment of the local content policy, which he noted, came from jobs executed abroad by International Oil Companies (IOCs), operating in the country.
“The narrative then was that nothing can be done in-country. Plants and modules were fully fabricated offshore without any structure in place to achieve knowledge transfer. Before 2010, we had no active dry-dock facilities. The few we had were abandoned and left to rot away. Today, we have four active dry docking facilities in Port Harcourt, Onne, and Lagos,” he added.
He said the board’s mandate is to develop local capacity in key areas such as manufacturing and fabrication and promote indigenous ownership of assets and utilization of indigenous assets in oil and gas operations.
Mr Wabote added that the board’s responsibility also include linking the oil and gas industry with other sectors of the economy, enhance multiplier effect of oil and gas investments in economy and develop pool of competitive supply chain rooted in oil bearing communities.
Reading riot acts to defaulters of the Nigerian Content Policy, Wabote said non-compliance with the law, will result to the suspension of projects/contracts, penalty of five per cent of project sum, withdrawal of NCDMB’s services, and project cancellation unrecoverable sunk cost.
Other penalties for non-compliance, according to the Executive Secretary, are escalation to other regulators to withdraw or suspend license, withdrawal of approvals or de-classification of contractor from pre-qualification list, application of the full weight of the law in accordance with Section 68, and publication of non-compliant operators in newspapers and professional gazettes.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Chief Operating Officer, DPRP, Mr Giuseppe Surace, said the programme was organized to create awareness among the company’s contractors on the requirements of NCDMB, as part of moves to ensure the local content policy take roots in their day to day operation.
“The programme was organized to ensure that our contractors are well informed about the Nigerian Content Act and this is expected to assist them with the execution of not just the Dangote project, but other projects in their portfolio,” he added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.63 per cent in Week 18 of the 2025 trading year, supported by gains posted by five stocks on the platform.
Just like in the previous week, there were four trading days last week due to the Workers’ Day holiday, and over these days, investors carried out 130 deals in 19 stocks.
Data indicated that the value of transactions went down by 98.9 per cent to N105.9 million from the preceding week’s N9.9 billion and the volume of trades shrank by 99.6 per cent to 14.5 million units from 3.9 billion units in the previous week.
The most active stock by value in the week was FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with N70.7 million, Afriland Properties Plc recorded N13.6 million, Geo-Fluids Plc traded N13.0 million, Capital Hotels Plc posted N6.0 million, and IPWA Plc reported N2.0 million.
Geo-Fluids Plc was the most traded stock by volume with 6.4 million units, IPWA Plc transacted 4.0 million units, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc recorded 1.9 million, Capital Hotels Plc traded 1.2 million units, and Afriland Properties Plc exchanged 0.902 million units.
The NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) added 20.60 points to settle at 3,289.66 points compared with the 3,269.06 points recorded in the preceding trading week, and the bourse’s market capitalisation gained N12.07 billion to close at N1.926 trillion compared with the N1.914 trillion posted the previous week.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc improved by 13.1 per cent to N40.00 per unit from N35.37 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc appreciated by 11.1 per cent to N2.00 per share from N1.80 per share, Food Concepts Plc grew by 10.3 per cent to N1.29 per unit from N1.17 per unit, Lagos Building Investment Company (LBIC) Plc jumped by 10.00 per cent to N3.08 per share from N2.80 per share, and UBN Property Plc increased by 4.8 per cent to N2.20 per unit from N2.10 per unit.
On the flip side, Afriland Properties Plc dropped 10 per cent to end at N16.00 per share compared with the preceding week’s N17.78 per share. IPWA Plc dipped by 9.1 per cent to 50 Kobo per unit from 55 Kobo per unit, Acorn Petroleum Plc lost 5.9 per cent to close at N1.10 per share versus N1.17 per share, and Mass Telecomm Innovation Plc shed 2.4 per cent to finish at 40 Kobo per unit versus 41 Kobo per unit.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited expanded by 0.27 per cent on a week-on-week basis last week, driven by gains recorded by 52 stocks, led by ABC Transport.
The notable transport and logistics firm posted a 44.87 per cent surge in its share price in the four-day trading week, closing at N2.26.
Legend Internet appreciated by 32.40 per cent to N9.03, Fidson rose by 22.85 per cent to N22.85, University Press jumped by 20.88 per cent to N4.11, and NAHCO flew by 20.17 per cent to N82.50.
On the flip side, Ecobank lost 18.75 per cent to sell at N26.00, Multiverse declined by 18.59 per cent to N6.35, Livestock Feeds crashed by 10.63 per cent to N8.49, Aradel Holdings slipped by 9.86 per cent to N448.00, and Tripple Gee depreciated by 9.60 per cent to N1.79.
Business Post reports that 52 shares gained weight in the week versus 64 shares a week earlier, 37 stocks depreciated versus 27 stocks in the previous week, and 59 equities closed flat versus 57 equities in the preceding week.
The All-Share Index (ASI) and the market capitalisation improved by 0.27 per cent and 0.28 per cent each to 106,042.57 points and N66.648 trillion, respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher apart from the banking, insurance, AFR Bank Value, MERI Value, energy, Lotus II, sovereign bond and commodity indices, which depreciated by 0.38 per cent, 2.89 per cent, 0.04 per cent, 2.08 per cent, 2.90 per cent, 0.01 per cent, 0.19 per cent and 1.12 per cent, respectively.
The market operated for four days last week because of the public holiday observed on Thursday for the 2025 Workers’ Day celebration.
Despite this, Customs Street witnessed a higher turnover compared with the preceding trading week, as investors bought and sold 2.200 billion shares worth N75.409 billion in 70,329 deals versus the 1.854 billion shares valued at N56.025 billion traded in 51,386 deals a week earlier.
The financial services sector led the activity chart with 1.432 billion equities valued at N30.908 billion in 33,095 deals, contributing 65.09 per cent and 40.99 per cent to the total trading volume and value, respectively, as the ICT industry transacted 230.248 million shares worth N27.453 billion in 4,811 deals, and the consumer goods space sold 166.345 million stocks for N4.708 billion in 8,284 deals.
Fidelity Bank, Access Holdings, and UBA transacted 704.639 million units worth N16.757 billion in 10,466 deals, accounting for 32.03 per cent and 22.22 per cent of the total trading volume and value, respectively.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The sum of N1.48 billion has disbursed by the Bank of Industry (BoI) in loans to 29,000 small business owners in Imo State as part of efforts to drive economic growth across the country.
The Managing Director of the bank, Mr Olasupo Olusi, said this at a town hall meeting on the federal government’s loan scheme for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Owerri.
Mr Olusi, represented by the bank’s Divisional Head for MSME in the South, said that the loan scheme was intended to address challenges facing businesses in the state, such as access to finance and cost of doing business.
He said that business owners could access up to N5million each at an interest rate of 9 per cent per annum with a three months moratorium and a tenure of up to three years.
He added that the disbursed funds were part of FG’s N200 billion Special Intervention Fund in line with President Bola Tinubu’s prosperity agenda.
He, therefore, urged business owners to take advantage of the opportunity to grow their businesses.
He also urged stakeholders such as the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) to mobilise their members to be able to access the loan.
“Application is open to the public and the Bank of Industry facilitates the verification of applicants’ data to facilitate disbursement.
“ We, therefore, call on all stakeholders – MSME owners, community leaders, youth groups, women associations, and Local Government authorities to be active advocates of the scheme.
“ It is our shared prosperity and we need to empower our young people to be architects of their own future,,” Mr Olusi said.
Also, the Secretary of NASME in Imo, Mr Ugochukwu Ohaegbu, called on owners of registered businesses to identify with the association for optimal benefits.
-
Feature/OPED5 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz2 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking7 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy2 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking2 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports2 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn
-
Technology4 years agoHow To Link Your MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile Lines to NIN