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T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ ͰͲ˜ ͰͮͯͶ
BUSINESSWORLD NEITI: NNPC FAILED TO REMIT N998BN OIL PROCEEDS IN 2014
Ezekwesili: Nigerian Content Policy Should Meet Global Standards Stories by Ejiofor Alike
(NIMASA) for failing to provide records of Cabotage freight levy collection. Presenting further finding of the audit, the Director of Communications and Advocacy, NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said the report found the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) culpable as it suggested that Platform Petroleum Limited was owing Education tax for 2013 and 2014, whilst Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited did not pay output VAT in 2011- 2014. “Audit validation of payments into CBN account reviewed that some receipts were recorded without names of the paying entities and this resulted in improper recording,’ he said. “Subsidy payments made by CBN could not be matched with subsidy claims processed for marketers for 2014. CBN did not report or present the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) remittances on a company-by-company basis. Errors of material omissions in filling the template submitted by NEITI to the CBN with the risks that the information in the templates may be incomplete or understated,” Orji added. NAEE: BUHARI NEEDS ENERGY COUNCIL TO SOLVE NIGERIA’S POWER CRISIS
Buhari came to power, that there is an energy council that is moribund and should be revamped,” said Iledare. Iledare also stated that the NAEE will hold the 11th edition of its annual conference this week in Abuja in conjunction with the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). According to him, the conference would explore the impacts the changes in global energy market could have on emerging economies like Nigeria, with emphasis on the potentials in Nigeria’s gas deposits. Providing details of potential discussions points at plenaries in the conferences, Iledare said:
Group Business Editor
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku AgriBusiness/Industry Editor
Jonathan Eze
Comms/e-Business Editor
Emma Okonji
Capital Market Editor
Goddy Egene
Senior Correspondent
Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents
Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Linda Eroke (Labour) Eromosele Abiodun (Maritime) Ejiofor Alike (Energy) James Emejo (Nation’s Capital) Obinna Chima (Money Mkt) Chineme Okafor (Energy) Reporters
Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (Cap Mkt)
NEWS
A former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said that the implementation of local content policy in the oil and gas sector should reflect global best practices, with focus on equal participation, competence and overall interest of the country. She said the discretionary allocation of oil fields to friends and cronies of political office holders in the past led to the stifling of the growth of the oil and gas sector, pointing that such arbitrary action resulted to mediocrity, incompetence, and under-development of the sector. In her remarks as the Chairman of the First National Education Summit organised recently in Lagos by the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), with the theme: “Sustaining Local Content Through Quality Education And Training: Prospects and Challenges,” Ezekwesili argued that “the discretionary practice was the harbinger of massive grand corruption in the country and that it necessitated the entrenchment of the licensed offshore system as a way of ending that”. “I pray that our local content policy will not suffer stifling simply because it’s not anchored on the obvious vision which is that the economic impact of the sector be extended beyond the operators that have connections of one kind or the other, to who know who holds high political office. We cannot on the basis of local content decide to play by local standard. It is harmful to our being. Whether it is in terms of the economic activities within the sector, companies operating
should understand that there are skills that we need to develop within the sector; we must not play by local standard. If we play local standard; we are going to permanently index the capacity of our people to local standard. Today’s world is not a local world; today’s world is a global world,” she explained. She added that the vision of the local content was not to settle relatives and friends but that it was meant to ensure equal opportunity to compete on the basis of merit. “There are many sectors of our economy that are still virgins. Your sector is the one
that has well gone beyond maturity except that at your maturity you still behave like a child. So, we better not make the mistake of feeling that the world will wait forever for our oil. The world is kissing good bye very soon. We need to find a local content on the ideals of the future of our society,” she added. In his goodwill message, the Minister Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, harped on the need to deregulate and liberalise the oil and gas sector to enable indigenous entrepreneurs with experience in the industry to participate actively in the exploration activities.
Adamu who was represented at the occasion by the Rector, Yaba College of Technology, Mr. Femi Omokungbe, explained that the local content development was initiated by the federal government to develop local capacity in the oil and gas industry to enable Nigerians take proactive role in the industry. “It is seemed that the utilisation of the Nigerian human resources, the local content development will ensure that the percentage of the locally produced materials, personneling, goods and services rendered to the industry are
increased thereby generating more employment and an economic empowerment,” he said. Also speaking, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, represented by the Managing Director of the National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO), Siky Aliyu, charged the Nigerian academia and the oil and gas industry to collaborate in order to help reduce the risks resulting from lack of human capacity in the oil and gas industry.
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L-R: Executive Director Technical, AIICO Insurance Plc, Kadri Adewale; Executive Director Operations, Babatunde Fajemirokun and General Manager Retail Life, Sola Ajayi at a press press briefing organised by AIICO Insurance in Lagos... recently
NETCO Records N3.2bn Profit, Delivers N750m Dividend to NNPC The National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO) has recorded a profit before tax of N3.257 billion for the 2017 financial year and delivered dividend of N750 million to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). A breakdown of NETCO’s financial results showed that the company’s revenue increased by 122 per cent from N10.13 billion in the previous year to N22.46 billion in the year under review. Speaking at the company’s 2017 annual general meeting (AGM) in Abuja at the weekend, NETCO Board Chairman, who is also NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mr. Bello Rabiu, said the operating profit of NETCO increased by 134 per cent, from N0.89 billion in 2016 to N2.07 billion in 2017. Rabiu noted that the impressive result was the outcome of improved performance in project execution and cost reduction measures put in place during the period, in addition to and the new addition of construction and procurement portfolios in the company’s activities basket. He, however, stated that the profit before tax decreased by 34 per cent in the year under review when compared with N4.90 billion of the previous years, stressing that the decrease was attributable to the
foreign exchange gains which constituted 56 per cent before tax in 2016 as compared to 4.8 per cent gain in 2017. Rabiu said the remarkable figures were made possible through sustained efforts on the part of the Company to cash in on the strong support of the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru and the shareholders. “The strong support of the GMD, that of the shareholders, in addition to award of some big-ticket jobs which NETCO delivered on time, within budget and without compromising on quality of service delivery, made it possible for the remarkable figures. The performance has reinforced to all stakeholders that given the right environment, NETCO is poised to greater heights”, he said. Rabiu said for the first time since the establishment of NETCO, the company was declaring the highest dividend in any given year of N750 million to its shareholders at the AGM. Speaking while receiving the cheque for the dividend, Baru, commended the management of NETCO for the unprecedented performance. He assured the company of his continued support, stressing that based on its performance,
he would ensure NETCO got more projects, especially in the gas sector. He congratulated
the outgoing MD of NETCO, Mr. Siky Aliyu, for leaving a legacy behind for his successor
and expressed optimism that the company would perform better next year.
PTDF: Nigeria Lacks Database for Required Skills in Oil Industry Chineme Okafor in Abuja The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has disclosed that at the Nigeria’s oil industry does not have a unified database of all the skills required by its operators across board to enable them drive productivity. It explained that such development has made it difficult to replace capacity gaps identified by oil and gas industry operators locally and resort to foreign sources to fill up such human capacity gaps. The Executive Secretary of PTDF, Dr. Bello Gusau stated this at the first national education summit organised by the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) recently in Lagos. Gusau explained that despite the introduction of artificial intelligence in the operations of the global oil and gas industry, the place of a human interface has not changed much, hence the need to continually upgrade the skillset of people in the
industry to meet the dynamic demands of the sector. According to him, humans are still central to the development, performance and sustainability of resource and tools deployed in the oil industry, and efforts must be stepped up to recruit more talented oil and gas graduates to the industry, as well as increase interest among current employees to sustain existing human resource pool. “The question then becomes what can we do to ensure the development of the critical mass of human resources to satisfy the needs of the oil and gas industry and to then ensure the sustainability of Nigeria’s local content aspirations,” Gusau stated. He identified the major obstacles to realising the objective of improving the industry’s human resource base to include absence of acceptable platforms for the development of skills and capacities for the industry, lack of effective co-ordination and silo approach to development
of quality education and usable training. Gusau said: “Interventions in research, development and human capital run into billions of dollars annually from all players, but these interventions are undertaken by each player in accordance with its determination and needs. There is largely no co-ordinated approach to the development of these capacities or indeed even the education aspects of the capacity.” He further explained: “There is hardly any acceptable data base of the skills or a hand book of the educational development requirements to fill identified human capacity gaps. While government agencies in the oil and gas, education and national planning sectors are all engaged in different aspects of determining education and skills requirements, private players in the industry are also doing the same to the extent of their needs and operational requirements.”