Speaking at the unveiling of the programme, tagged ‘Project 100’ that would
see 100 wholly-owned and operated Nigerian companies receive capacity
and financial support from the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring
Board (NCDMB) on Thursday in Abuja, Kachikwu said that it was part of its
effort to improve indigenousb participation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
He noted that indigenous companies operating in the Nigerian oil industry always
contend with serious difficulties and that the programme will, among other
things, seek to also develop next generation large-scale Nigerian oil and gas
service companies through structured capacity building and policy intervention.
Local media reports on Friday quoted the minister as saying that the programme was
designed to create opportunities for local companies by boosting their capacity and giving them access to existing
markets.
The minister urged the selected 60 firms to focus on growing their businesses and that the
government would expect them to meet the objectives of the programme.
In his remarks at the event, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, explained
said that the board would enhance the capacity of companies selected for the
programme and help them financially through the Nigerian Content Intervention
Fund (NCIF).
He said that the selection of the companies was transparently executed from
NCDMB’s platform-NOGICJQS with the assistance of KPMG and that another
phase of selection would be held in the coming weeks.
Wabote said that the programme would allow medium-size Nigerian companies to
grow into large businesses and that of the 8,000 indigenous companies
registered on its portal, just 2527 companies were active.
According to him, the 60 companies were selected from these number after going
through rigorous screening, noting that while the companies were eligible to access
funding from the $200 million NCIF.