Economy

NCDMB Meets Stakeholders on Local Content Enforcement

Published

7 years ago

19/06/2018

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

In a bid to galvanise collaboration with key stakeholders and ensure broad compliance with the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has organized a workshop with the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ).

The Board also held a separate workshop with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other aviation stakeholders.

The workshop with NEPZA and LFTZ was held in Lagos recently, with the intent to create a modality for effective monitoring of expatriates deployed by oil and gas companies operating in free trade zones.

Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, delivered the keynote address and underscored that Nigerian Content does not encourage Nigerianisation of the industry but promotes the domestication and domiciliation of value adding activities.

According to him, Nigerian Content implementation led to the establishment of two pipe mills in the country, five pipe coating plants, mega fabrication yards, engineering design houses and created over 30,000 direct jobs, with over 6 million training man-hours among other numerous achievements.

He added that the Board’s efforts also made significant impact in the free zones like the establishment of the SHI-MCI yard in LADOL and major fabrication projects executed at the Nigerdock FZE. He underlined that “it is crucial for NCDMB, NEPZA and LFTZ to fashion out a suitable framework for managing expatriate deployment in the free zones to ensure that we achieve the full aspirations of government and enhance capacity utilization of oil and gas facilities within and outside the free zones.”

Mr Wabote affirmed that a framework will be developed to capture the approval process for expatriates deployed by such oil and gas facilities, outline a hitch free process to grant the Board access to free zones in other to conduct statutory performance reviews and assessment visits to oil and gas facilities and outline actions to encourage oil and gas companies to set up free zones.

In his remarks, Managing Director of NEPZA represented by the General Manager, Private Zones, Mr Muazu Mohammed Ruma, commended the Board for the initiative, assuring that NEPZA was ready to collaborate with the Board in the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act.

At a similar workshop with aviation stakeholders, the Board charged them to kick start the process of forming the Aviation Sectorial Working Group, which would operate as a member of the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF), so they could address specific issues relating to their sector, especially with respect to capacity development and harnessing of opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

The group would also utilize the NCCF platform to develop action plans, timelines and strategy that would advance the aviation subsector of the oil and gas industry.

He listed compliance issues in aviation subsector to include expatriates deployment offshore and Nigerianisation of overdue expatriate positions by aviation companies

The Director, Planning, Research and Statistics Division, NCDMB, Mr Patrick Obah, who represented the Executive Secretary, also charged the aviation stakeholders to submit a proposal that would enable the Board to carry out categorization of players in the aviation service sector. Such categorization, he said, would ensure that companies that demonstrate local capacity and Nigerian Content Compliance are given first consideration in oil and gas opportunities.

The Director General of NCAA, represented by the Director General Aviation, Captain Ayodele Sasegbon thanked the Board for seeking to synergize with the aviation sector and promised the support of the agency towards development of the oil and gas industry. Major aviation companies participated in the workshop and they included Bristow Helicopters, Caverton Helicopters, Atlantic Aviation, Flying Doctors, Aero contractors, Heliserve, Taucan Aviation, Tropical Artics Logistics, Arik Air, Glory Airline Services and Anap Jets.

Economy

Geo-Fluids, Afriland Properties Lift NASD Bourse by 0.13%

Published

7 hours ago

11/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The duo of Geo-Fluids Plc and Afriland Properties Plc propelled the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange up 0.13 per cent on Friday, January 10.

Investors gained N1.4 billion during the trading session after the market capitalisation of the bourse ended at N1.053 trillion compared with the previous day’s N1.052 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased at the close of business by 4.07 points to wrap the session at 3,073.93 points compared with 3,069.86 points recorded at the previous session.

Geo-Fluids added 25 Kobo to its value to close at N4.85 per unit compared with the previous session’s N4.60 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 24 Kobo to close at N16.25 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N16.01 per share.

There was a 35.4 per cent fall in the volume of securities traded in the session as investors exchanged 4.3 million units compared to 6.6 million units traded in the preceding session, the value of shares traded yesterday went down by 37.4 per cent to N17.2 million from the N27.5 million recorded a day earlier, and the number of deals decreased by 47.2 per cent to 19 deals from the 36 deals recorded in the preceding day.

FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 1.9 million units worth N74.2 million, followed by 11 Plc with 12,963 units valued at N3.2 million, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI )Plc with 10.7 million units sold for N2.1 million.

IGI Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 10.6 million units sold for N2.1 million, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 1.9 million units valued at N74.2 million, and Acorn Petroleum Plc with 1.2 million units worth N1.9 million.

Economy

Naira Depreciates to N1,543/$1 at Official Market

Published

8 hours ago

11/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed a depreciation on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, January 10.

According to data from the FMDQ Exchange, the local currency weakened against the greenback yesterday by 0.12 per cent or N1.80 to sell for N1,543.03/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,541.23/$1.

The pressure on the domestic currency came as the access granted to the Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to purchase FX from the official market through the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) platform prepares to end next week, precisely on January 19.

The CBN had given a 42-day window to the operators to access the platform to help stabilise the Naira in December, and this expires next week.

On Friday, the Nigerian currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N30.78 to sell for N1,889.29/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,858.51/£1, but gained N5.48 against the Euro to finish at N1,583.81/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s rate of N1,589.29/€1.

As for the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira remained stable against the US Dollar during the trading session at N1,650/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post.

In the cryptocurrency market, it was bearish as the US economy added 256,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, topping forecasts for 160,000 and up from 212,000 in November (revised from an originally reported 227,000).

However, the readings came after a number of recent economic reports triggered a broad-market pullback across asset classes such as crypto as investors quickly scaled back the idea of a continued series of Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.

Cardano (ADA) fell by 3.6 per cent to trade at $0.921, Solana (SOL) slumped by 2.8 per cent to $185.93, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 1.4 per cent to $3,233.27, Litecoin (LTC) lost 1.3 per cent to finish at $103.62, Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 0.5 per cent to sell at $0.3315, Bitcoin (BTC), waned by 0.2 per cent to $94,154.43, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.1 per cent to $693.30.

On the flip side, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 1.5 per cent to settle at $2.34, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.

Economy

Customs Street Crumbles by 0.08% as Profit-Takers Take Charge

Published

8 hours ago

11/01/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

Profit-takers took control of Customs Street on Friday, plunging it by 0.08 per cent at the close of trading activities.

The sell-offs were across all the key sectors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on last trading session of the week.

The insurance space went down by 1.53 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.41 per cent, the consumer goods sector weakened by 0.16 per cent, and the energy counter slumped by 0.08 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 79.68 points to 105,451.06 points from 105,530.74 points and the market capitalisation retreated by N48 billion to N64.303 trillion from N64.351 trillion.

Yesterday, investors traded 1.5 billion shares worth N19.4 billion in 12,877 deals compared with the 489.5 million shares worth N13.1 billion transacted in 13,010 deals in the preceding day, indicating a decline in the number of deals by 1.02 deals and a rise in the trading volume and value by 203.14 per cent and 48.09 per cent, respectively.

Wema Bank was the busiest stock with 976.2 million units valued at N9.8 billion, Tantalizers traded 53.0 million units worth 129.6 million, Universal Insurance sold 34.8 million units for N26.8 million, Access Holdings exchanged 33.9 million units valued at N843.8 million, and Nigerian Breweries traded 27.3 million units worth N873.3 million.

The heaviest loss was suffered by Sunu Assurances with a decline of 9.99 per cent to trade at N7.30, Eunisell shed 9.96 per cent to N17.35, SAHCO crumbled by 9.87 per cent to N30.15, DAAR Communications plunged by 9.28 per cent to 88 Kobo, and Sovereign Trust Insurance went down by 7.04 per cent to N1.32.

On the flip side, C&I Leasing gained 10.00 per cent to close at N4.51, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 9.99 per cent to N10.02, Trans Nationwide Express jumped by 9.89 per cent to N2.00, RT Briscoe rose by 9.83 per cent to N2.57, and Secure Electronic Technology grew by 9.46 per cent to 81 Kobo.

Business Post reports that the bourse ended with 33 price gainers and 25 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.