The Federal Government has developed and issued an insurance guideline to drive the retention of oil sector financial spending in Nigeria and help reverse capital flight.
Speaking on the topic, “Strengthening Nigerian Content Implementation with the Seven Ministerial Regulations,” at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja on Monday, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Simbi Wabote, said the guideline was in accordance with the law.
He said, “With regards to insurance of assets and liabilities in the oil and gas industry, Sections 49 and 50 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (2010) state the requirements for players in the Nigerian oil and gas activities on the need to engage local insurance companies for insuring their assets, liabilities and so on.
“It is in a bid to carry out its key mandate of enforcing compliance with the provisions of the NOGICD Act that the board, in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission, developed and issued the insurance guideline for the oil and gas industry.
The guideline will contribute significantly towards promoting the development of insurance services in-country and it will also drive the retention of financial spending in Nigeria thereby contributing towards reversing capital flight.”
Wabote explained that the guideline would also help to create a database of all insurance programmes procured by operators, project promoters, alliance partners, and Nigerian indigenous companies, to enable the board to monitor utilisation of in-country insurance capacity.
At NCDMB, we believe that any in-country value retention realised from the insurance sector will further enhance the delivery of our 70 per cent Nigerian content target by the year 2027,” he stated.
He said the implementation framework of the guideline highlighted the specific directorates of the board and their responsibility regarding the implementation of the insurance guideline.
Wabote said the directorates saddled with the responsibility of interpreting and enforcing the guideline would be reaching out to players in the sector shortly to provide support and clarity to bring all parties into compliance.
“Please note that the goal is not to create additional impediments but to create job opportunities and in-country value retention to address threats to our socio-economic stability,” he stated.
The NCDMB boss added, “We all need to play our part to create a very conducive business environment for our citizens and businesses.”