NCDMB launches LearnFest to deepen oil, gas industry knowledge

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has launched the LearnFest Lecture Series to deepen knowledge-sharing among its staff and oil and gas industry stakeholders.

The initiative, inaugurated on Thursday at the Board’s headquarters in Yenagoa, is designed to strengthen the capacity of NCDMB personnel to effectively lead and regulate the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

LearnFest is an initiative of the Nigerian Content Academy (NCA), the specialised knowledge-sharing and training arm of the Board. It will provide structured learning on the mandate, operations and processes of NCDMB.

The three-hour inaugural session, attended by staff at the corporate headquarters, focused on the Board’s seven directorates, their divisions and departments, their responsibilities and how they work together to achieve corporate objectives.

In a promotional video, the Academy said NCDMB’s knowledge was spread across seven directorates, each with its own mandate, processes, expertise and responsibilities.

It stressed the importance of breaking down institutional silos, saying knowledge becomes more powerful when it moves from one department to another through “handshakes” among different units.

According to the Academy, LearnFest is designed to help staff understand “how everything fits together” in relation to the Board’s mandate, institutional processes, practices, culture and relationships.

“When we understand what others do, we collaborate better, support one another better, and work as one integrated ecosystem,” it stated.

Speaking at the event, the Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, said the Lecture Series was prompted by the need to deepen understanding of Nigerian Content tools and processes among staff and oil and gas industry stakeholders.

He said industry players needed to understand and interpret the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010, operational principles under the NCDMB Guidelines for Nigerian Content Human Capital Development Implementation Strategy, Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate (NCCC), Nigerian Content Plan (NCP), statutory reporting requirements and expatriate quota matters.

LearnFest, he said, “will make our work easier.”

Bamidele disclosed that oil and gas operators and service companies, industry associations including the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), academic institutions and ministries, departments and agencies had expressed interest in sending their personnel for specialised training at the Academy.

He said the NCA was also building a faculty, adding that the Lecture Series would help prepare the ground for its full take-off.

“The people presenting [the lectures] could form part of our faculty,” Bamidele said, adding that participants would provide feedback on the suitability of resource persons for future faculty roles.

He further disclosed that NCDMB management had approved the Board’s purpose-built facility in Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa, as a training centre for NCA programmes.

The first lecture was delivered by the Manager, Planning and Policy Development Department, Engr. Mofe Megbele, on “Understanding the Activities and Processes of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate.”

The presentation covered planning and policy development, expatriate quota, inter-directorate relations, research and development, technology commercialisation and innovation, NOGIC JQS, the Nigerian Content Compliance Framework (NCCF), e-Marketplace and stakeholder engagement.

Megbele said the directorate comprised two major divisions — Planning and Policy Development and Research and Statistics Development — both headed by general managers.

He explained that the Planning and Policy Development Department was established in September 2018 under Section 70 of the NOGICD Act and is responsible for developing policies and guidelines for internal and external stakeholders and monitoring their implementation.

The LearnFest Lecture Series will hold monthly for the next nine months, with a different directorate featured at each edition.

Attendance, both online and in person, is mandatory for NCDMB staff, while other oil and gas industry stakeholders will be able to participate in subsequent editions.