Simbi Kesiye Wabote. PHOTO:SweetCrudeRepors
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has cleared difficulties associated with remittance of the one per cent Nigeria Content Development Fund (NCDF) by oil and gas operators.
The NCDF was established by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act of 2010 and provides that one per cent of every contract in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry shall be deducted at source and paid into the Fund.
The board manages the Fund and deploys it for projects, programmes and activities directed at increasing Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry.
Speaking at the Stakeholders Sensitization Workshop on NCDF’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) remittance platform and start of Third Party Forensic Audit, organised by the board, the Executive Secretary, Simbi Wabote, stated that some companies were defaulting in their deductions and remittance on contracts they executed.
Simbi said the meeting was necessary to create awareness, as well as educate stakeholders on how to remit the one per cent NCDMB fund.
“Some of the stakeholders have not defaulted in their remittance. Due to the complaints of others on the difficulties associated with remitting the fund, we took all those complaints and we sat together with the service providers and modified the system to accommodate their challenges.
“We used the workshop to allow stakeholders ask all their questions in order to achieve smooth remittance of the fund,” he said.
Simbi explained that the fund has made possible single digit loans to most of the contributors, adding: “It is not a government grant. We have made the fund available to the contributors so that they will become competitive in providing services to the oil and gas industry, and most importantly, to reduce the cost of doing business in the oil sector.
“We have been building some mini-industrial parks in most of the areas where oil and gas activities take place in order to incubate manufacturing capability, which is one of the cardinal objectives of this administration to diversify the economy.”
In a presentation by Remita, one of the Africa’s payment platform, the company stated that in a bid to promote efficiency and accuracy in the collection of NCDF, NCDMB has automated the payment process.
The company stated that remitting companies are now empowered to make payments for NCDF via the Central Bank of Nigeria Payment Gateway- Remita and consummate these transactions using designated payment channels.
It noted that NCDMB automatically receives the payment into their CBN account with accompanying matching schedules.