By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is mulling the introduction of some changes to enhance the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF) to increase its impact and efficiency in the country.
“We will be proposing several strategic changes that will further enhance the impact and efficiency of the NCI Fund,” the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr Felix Ogbe, hinted at the quarterly engagement forum held with the Bank of Industry (BoI), which manages the fund earlier this week in Lagos.
He stated that by providing essential financial support, the fund has empowered numerous Nigerian oil and gas companies, fostered local capacity development, and promoted sustainable growth.
He indicated that the NCI Fund has been instrumental in driving and deepening local content development within the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its linkage sectors, adding that the NCI Fund has also supported numerous projects, building capacities along the local value chain and fostering growth among Nigerian companies.
NCIF is a portion of the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) which was set up by section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development, NOGICD, Act. The NCDF is contributed by a 1 per cent deduction from every contract awarded in the upstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The NCI Fund is regarded as the most successful fund scheme in the country, considering the faithful repairment by the beneficiaries and the growth of the fund.
The Bank of Industry carries out quarterly project monitoring on the loan beneficiaries, while the NCDMB holds an annual monitoring review on the fund scheme and beneficiaries.
