Featured, Oil & Gas
By Benprince Ezeh
THE Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has said that in the last three years, it has deployed the Nigerian Capital Development Fund, NCDF, to support the oil and gas industry.
Simbi Wabote, executive secretary, of NCDMB made this known in an exclusive interview with the Realnews last week.
“Over the years, we have deployed the NCDF to develop key infrastructure, implement human capacity development programs, fund loans schemes for industry stakeholders, and provide equity investments in furtherance of government policies and programmes,” Wabote told Realnews.
He said: “Within the last three years, we have deployed the NCDF to support the oil and gas industry, in the total sum of US$732million split into US$350million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund, NCIF, being managed by the Bank of Industry; US$50million Research and Development Fund, and US$332million as equity investments in various partnerships.
“In 2019, we deployed forensic audit and it helped us to increase remittance into the NCDF by US$75 from 285 contributors.
“We started the NCI Fund with US$200m in 2017 and we had different products, including Manufacturing, Refinancing, Contract Financing and Asset Acquisition, each at single obligor limit of US$10m and interest rate of eight percent. We also had the Community Contractor Financing as the only naira denominated product line and we kept it at a single obligor limit of N20m, with an interest rate of five percent.”
According to him, “By 2020, we had exhausted the entire US$200m and needed to increase the size of the NCI Fund because the number of applicants were over a hundred.
“Our Governing Council under the leadership of the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva approved an increase in the size of the fund by US$150m, so the NCI Fund increased from $200 Million to $350 Million to meet the increasing demands for the funds.
“We also created two additional products which are the Working Capital Fund for Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, companies and Women in Oil and Gas Intervention Fund. We also got approval for the $50 Million Research and Development Fund.”
The NCDMB has used the NCI Fund to support several services in the acquisition of assets and execution of contracts. “In fact, the NCI Fund is one of the most successful loan schemes. About 98 percent of the borrowers are paying back because we go through a very rigorous process,” the executive secretary said.
– Apr. 15, 2021 @ 08:12 GMT
Tags: How NCDMB is using NCDF to support oil and gas industry
