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NCDMB boss, Wabote bags OGTAN achievement award

By Collins Olayinka, Abuja 
03 May 2018   |   4:25 am
The Oil and Gas Trainers Association (OGTAN) has conferred the Local Content Development Achievement Award on the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote.

Simbi Kesiye Wabote. PHOTO:SweetCrudeRepors

The Oil and Gas Trainers Association (OGTAN) has conferred the Local Content Development Achievement Award on the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote.

The award was presented to the NCDMB boss at the OGTAN’s first National Education Summit held in Lagos.

President of OGTAN, Dr. Mayowa Afe declared that NCDMB chief got the award because of the diligence the Board has executed its mandate under Wabote and its youth empowerment initiatives.

While accepting the award, Wabote commended the staffers of NCDMB for buying into his vision resulting in their collaboration and successes attained within the short period.

He challenged them to work even harder and bring more initiatives to deepen the implementation of Local Content practice across all sectors of the nation’s economy, including security establishments, especially domestication of their clothing and hardware.

He stated that a lot of progress has been made in the implementation process and implored every stakeholder to impact their sphere of influence to make positive contributions to Nigerian Content development.

Speaking earlier on the topic ‘Sustaining local content through quality education and training’, Wabote harped on the need to domicile the production of educational materials used at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in the country.

His words: “Data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that about five million pupils are enrolled into our primary schools every year while the total population in all the primary schools is about 24 million. These are just some of the opportunities that could help booster our local content practice. There are much more from shoes to uniforms and the rest. That is the reason we have always advocated for sectorial linkages to other sectors of the economy such as ICT, power, and construction if we truly want to deepen our Local Content practice.”

Delivering the keynote address at the event, a former Minister for Education Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili insisted that the Nigerian oil and gas industry would not make a positive contribution to the economy without focusing on human capacity development.

She underscored the need to accelerate the pace of implementing the Nigerian Content Act and focus on outcomes that are measurable.

She added: “We must measure performance against set targets. The structure of the Nigerian and world economy had changed, hence the policy of education needed to change to reflect the new realities. The policy makers must anticipate where the world is going. Education must enable us build a society where our people can compete globally. Artificial intelligence and simulation data are the big things today. The world will not wait for our oil.”

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