ENERGY FINANCE
Ms Ebehi Ehi-Omike
NCI Fund: 33 Applications Approved, 11 Receives Disbursement Applicant Expresses Shock, Storms BOI to Verify Offer Letter By Jerome Onoja
T
he Bank of Industr y (BOI) ha s revea led that a total of 33 applications for access to the Nigerian C ontent Inter vention Fund have been approved, and a tot a l of 11 have re c eive d disbursements. Spea k ing at a recent workshop in Lagos, the group head for oil and gas, Ms Ebehi Ehi-Omike made this known. She added that, about 5 more disbursements ought to have been added to the list but the bank was still expecting some documentation from the approved applicants.
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We have financed some modular refineries since i n c e pt i o n . T h o u g h it costs a lot to set one up, it is quite technical too, but we a r e f u nd i n g t hem,” she said. She further admonished industr y players to ta ke advantage of the inter vention fund and also make all statutory documentations available. “I believe we are ver y open, w ithout un neces sa r y b ott leneck s. You don’t need 44
Majorwaves Energy Report
to know anybody to have access to the NC I fund. Just apply and you will receive the same treatment like everyone across board. Most recipients of the fund have expressed surprise at the level of transparency,” she added. Na r rating the experience of a customer who received a n offer letter, she said “he walked into our office a nd dema nded to ver i f y the authenticity of the offer letter he had received. He thought it was a scam. That’s how real and transparent we are,” she quipped. The Nigerian Content Intervention Fund is a Nigerian C ontent D evelopment a nd Monitoring Board (NC DMB) fund managed by BOI. It is a portion of the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) set aside by the NCDMB for the BOI to manage and lend directly to indigenous manufacturers, s er v ic e prov ider s a nd ot her ke y p l ay e r s i n t h e o i l a n d g a s i ndu st r y, to me et t hei r f u nd i ng ne e d s. O ne p ercent of a l l cont ract s awa rde d i n t he up s t r e a m s e c to r o f t he
JULY 2019, Vol 2 No 4
Nigerian oil and gas industr y i s deducted a nd rem itted to t h e N C D F a s s t ip u l ate d by S ection 104 of the Niger ia n Oil and Gas Industr y C ontent Development (NOGICD) Act. The fund is designed to increase indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry, build local c a p a c it y a n d c o mp et e n c i e s; to pr omote t he g r ow t h a nd development of Niger ia n Content in activities connected with sectors of the Nigerian oil and gas Industr y; to deepen t he c r e at i o n o f l i n k a ge s to other sectors of the national economy a nd boost i ndu str y contr i bution s to the g row th of Ni ger i a’s Nat ion a l Gr o s s Domestic Product; to address persistent funding challenges t hat have h i ndere d c apacity a nd g row th of loca l ser v ice prov iders in oil a nd ga s; to f a c i l it ate t h e g r ow t h o f com mu n it y ba s e d compa n ie s in the upstream oil and gas s e ctor; to spu r pro duct iv it y and job creation in the Oil and Ga s I ndustr y a nd to attract i nve s t m e nt c a p it a l i nto t h e sector and boost contribution of the sector to Nigeria’s economic growth. www.majorwavesenergyreport.com
