The executive secretary of the Nigerian Content and Development and Monitoring Board NCDMB Engineer Simbi Wabote has noted that “Energy transition does not necessarily mean loss of jobs.
He made the statement while delivering a lecture during day 1 of the National Executive Council meeting of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) at Immaculate Royal Int’l Hotel, Owerri, Imo State.
Engr Simbi who highlighted some achievements of the Board, noted that “Energy transition does not necessarily mean loss of jobs.
Citing the period when the world transited from horse carriages to automobiles, he noted that the initial fears about job losses turned out to be unfounded as the automobile industry created more jobs.
According to him: “horse riders and the carriage repairers that failed to acquire the new skills required in the automobile industry became jobless.
“Needless to add that the Association of Horse Carriage Riders became moribund.”
The lecture of the Executive Secretary was titled “The Application of Local Content in the Development of Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry, with Objectives to:
a. Provide an overview of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resource base and the factors that led to the introduction of Local Content in the oil and gas industry.
b. Highlight the key parameters of sustainable Local Content practice and key provisions of the NOGICD Act;
c. Describe how Nigeria has deployed these parameters in the Oil & Gas sector;
d. Briefly describe the operations of the Board and List out some of the achievements so far realized from the application of the Local Content Law, outlined that NCDMB and the NOGICD Act is not about “Nationalization” but the intent is about domiciliation and domestication.